


카드로  만든 집 (그 속에서 우린)

by Winshieldwipernoises



Category: VIXX, 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Angst, Dancer Jung Hoseok | J-Hope, Fluff, Grumpy Min Yoongi | Suga, Jung Hoseok | J-Hope & Min Yoongi | Suga are Best Friends, Jung Hoseok | J-Hope is a Sweetheart, Jungkook is literally the softest baby mafia ever, Kim Namjoon | RM is a Dork, Kim Seokjin | Jin Being a Mom, Kim Taehyung | V is a Little Shit, M/M, Mafia AU, Mafia Jeon Jungkook, Mafia Kim Taehyung, Mafia Park Jimin, Min Yoongi | Suga is Bad at Feelings, Multi, Park Jimin (BTS) Being an Asshole, Park Jimin (BTS) is Whipped, Rape/Non-con Elements, Seokjin's Cafe, Smut, Yoongi is just poor, Yoongi thinks he's tough but he's not, mafia kim namjoon, only one chapter mentions it so far, very brief - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2019-12-07
Packaged: 2021-01-22 15:34:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 25
Words: 27,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21304412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winshieldwipernoises/pseuds/Winshieldwipernoises
Summary: Park Jimin and Kim Taehyung are two of the strongest people in the world right now. No one really knows it, but they are. They have deals, alliances, and friends in every social circle you could possibly think of. Such things come at a steep cost, of course. Lying, cheating, and stealing are near daily occurrences, with the occasional removal of certain unwanted company to really tie everything together nicely. They're partners in life, love, and business and it makes them nearly unstoppable.Their two biggest allies are Jeon Jungkook and Kim Namjoon, two brothers adopted into big mafia family and then left with the business after their father's sudden death. Together the four of them form the biggest, most dangerous mafia in the world. Everything either falls right into their hands, or they take it. There's nothing stopping them.Enter Min Yoongi.Park Jimin is enamored at first sight. Tension arises between Taehyung and Jimin but is it from jealousy? Or something else entirely?Enter Kim Seokjin.Kim Namjoon is in love in seconds. Seokjin disapproves of Namjoon's lifestyle but can they reconcile it? Or will Namjoon step down?Then.Exit Jeon Jungkook.
Relationships: Jeon Jungkook/Kim Taehyung | V, Kim Namjoon | RM/Kim Seokjin | Jin, Min Yoongi | Suga/Park Jimin
Comments: 50
Kudos: 128





	1. Introductions

**Author's Note:**

> Hello my lovely people of the internet.  
This is my first really big project and it's gonna be really spotty updates because college so I don't even know how long this is gonna be, but all the chapters will probably vary in size pretty greatly.  
Listen to House of Cards. Issa bop.  
This is going to be full of angst and smut and fluff and crack so it has a little bit of everything for everyone. I'll try to remember to mark nsfw chapter but I have the memory of an ADHD squirrel so the chances of me actually doing it are very slim....  
Anywho....  
Sit back, buckle up, and Enjoy!

Park Jimin. 

The twenty-three year old sex genius. He runs enough explicit services to be considered the expert in the city's sex games. He owns a confirmed 3 clubs, works in at least 2 more, and has some involvement in at least 6 more. Prostitutes, strippers, and any one else in any similar service all know Park Jimin. Most of them are managed by him. 

He has two rules. Always consensual, never children. You hire his people, you don't fuck with his rules, or you die. It's that simple. 

Everything else is free game. 

This reputation proceeds him.

What people don't know is that Park Jimin's favorite color is yellow, he owns a cat, and he's a lightweight. He has the voice of an angel, he has asthma, is a morning person, and loves being outside.

People also don't know that Park Jimin has the blood of countless people staining his hands. He doesn't regret a single one. 

Especially not when he lounges naked in his penthouse, king bed, and silk sheets. 

He'd say all of it is worth it. 

People also don't know that Park Jimin is a sucker for soft, pretty boys. 

Enter: Min Yoongi. 

* * *

Min Yoongi.

The twenty-five year starving artist. Emphasis on the starving, please. He's a songwriter, or rather, he's trying to be. Right now, he's just a barista...and a waiter...and a busboy...and occasionally a pianist for rich people. But in his heart, he's a songwriter, a producer. Someone who has a voice to share his message with the world.

He just can't seem to get his foot in the door. 

It's okay, though. He likes his job...jobs.

Anyone who knows Yoongi knows the poor thing is...well...poor. The people that love him worry but there aren't many who do and he prefers it that way. 

He keeps mostly to himself, and tries to be as invisible to everyone around him as he possibly can. 

What people don't know about Min Yoongi is that his favorite color is actually pink. Not black. He wants a cat and doesn't often get drunk. He has the easiest smile in the world, even if it is small. He hates getting up but loves lazing in the sun, and gets cold easier than most people. 

People also don't know that Min Yoongi wants nothing more than to just be cuddled at any given time of day. He's never telling, either. 

Especially not when people just stand back and make all their assumptions based on his tattoos and dark clothes. He wants someone to love him for him, not an idea of him. 

He's achingly lonely, desperate for affection. 

Enter Kim Seokjin. 

* * *

Kim Seokjin. 

The twenty-five year old cafe owner. He's proud to say that he's one of the few cafes in the area not owned by one of the big names of the city. Everyone knows that Seokjin's cafe is a safe zone, a place where anyone can come and fall apart, or put themselves together and never be judged for the repercussions. Hotlines are tacked to all of the walls and the staff are all trained to respond to emergency situations. Some of them are even trained counselors. 

Seokjin takes life very seriously. And he wants everyone around him to take it just as seriously. To treasure it, and want it. 

Kim Seokjin saw Yoongi applying for job and immediately adopted him. They've been close friends ever since. Seokjin takes pride in being one of the few people able to shower Yoongi in the affection he craves. 

Seokjin's cafe has a reputation, known through the whole city as the safest place in the galaxy. 

What people don't know about Seokjin is that his favorite color is blue. He collects stuffed animals, his favorite being called RJ, and he loves the rain. He hates being hot and would always rather be cold than even slightly warm, and he definitely drinks too much. 

People also don't know that Seokjin sometimes struggles to keep himself together. He seeks for a companion that can take care of him while he takes care of everyone else. Someone intelligent and sweet and loving, that doesn't make demands that Seokjin isn't prepared to meet. Demands that Seokjin just _can't_ meet. 

He's got a past littered with difficulty and struggle and he's just growing so tired the older he gets. He just wants someone he can go home to everyday and feel refreshed by. 

Enter Kim Namjoon.

* * *

Kim Namjoon. 

The twenty-four year old genius. There was nothing that Namjoon couldn't figure out, which was why when he was left with a underground drug empire, he had no trouble picking the business up right away, despite being the sweetest person on the planet. He's focused a lot of his attention on the more legitmate front of his adopted father's company, pharmacy, although he freely admits that he'll never really do away with the illegitimate because it gives him a thrill to do something like that. There's something wholly satisfying about being able to take someone down in mere hours with no consequences. 

Namjoon looks at life pretty casually, if he's being honest. It doesn't mean much to him. Not when it can be replaced or changed as quickly as snapping his fingers. 

What people don't know about Kim Namjoon is that his favorite color is this one precise shade of cream. He hates washing the dishes, breaks damn near everything he touches, and can't be trusted within 12 feet of a kitchen. 

People also don't know that Namjoon loves love. He loves how perfect it is, untainted, and yet, dangerous and horrible. He loves how it drives people to murder and back without changing at all. He wants to love. He wants to love someone sweetly, without string attatched or expectations or demands, someone he can take care of. He also wants to love someone darkly who he knows will never cave to all of the demons and monster in his closet without making him hide them. 

Enter Jeon Jungkook.

* * *

Jeon Jungkook. 

The twenty-two year old spitfire of a thing. He's the most brutal of the men in the mafia and somehow manages to hold onto an aura of innocence and naivete. His brother coddles the hell out of him and then sends him off to do all the dirty work and Jungkook is totally okay with that. He's okay with being Namjoon's listening ear and bloody hands. He doesn't really care. 

Jungkook kills without second thought. He's been trained to. Trained to be efficient and deadly. 

Trained to be brutal and scary.

Trained for revenge. 

What people don't know is that his favorite color is black. He likes to work out, and he likes to eat just as much. He's never very far away from his brother, and he worries about the older constantly. He likes to ice skate in the winter and enjoys just about any sport you could think of, and plays way too many video games. 

What people don't know is that he loves to be dominated. He loves to sink to his knees and fall to the feet of anyone willing to keep their mouth shut. 

And even some who don't.

It's always fun to get rid of those who least expect it. 

Still, he really just wants one person who he can trust to take care of him, without worrying if they'll run their mouth. 

Enter Kim Taehyung.

* * *

Kim Taehyung. 

The twenty-three year old boss. There's no other way to describe him. Kim Taehyung is beautiful and brutal and cold and calculating and cruel. He is judge, jury and executioner. He protects what is his, and discards anyone not useful without a second glance. He's had an open relationship with Jimin for years, a secret friends with benefits with Jungkook for half as long, and a hit out for Namjoon's business longer than either of them can remember. 

There's nothing he hasn't done, no one he hasn't dared to kill, and no one who dares to cross him. 

His reputation precedes him in all circles. 

What people don't know is that his favorite color is purple. He loves Jimin's cat, can't drink coffee or alcohol and is a practicing catholic, although he doesn't follow very many of the rules. He prays, goes to church, and takes communion religiously, but never feels guilt for his sins. He knows their wrong. Just can't bring himself to feel regret. He smokes too much, does most drugs known to man, and can't be bothered to hide the fact that he's got one too many lovers. 

He'll never say I love you and works desperately to hide the fact that he's terribly in love with Jungkook. 

Namjoon would have his head, reputation be damned. 

* * *

Enter Jung Hoseok. 

He's not sure how he ended up here but it might have something to do with working for Kim Seokjin and being Yoongi's best friend. He's tried to stay out of everything, really he has. 

But what people don't know is that Jung Hoseok likes the danger, just a little bit. 

So his heart leads him to protect Yoongi and his adventurous spirit leads him a little too far down the rabbit hole to come back out. 

Oh, well. 


	2. I

There's never been anything so captivating as this particular little cafe.

Magic Shop has a reputation for living up to it's name.

Namjoon is always a little disgruntled when Jimin demands they meet in some normal, mundane place to discuss business. The younger man requests this fairly often, and usually, Jungkook can talk him out of it. 

Not today, though. 

Today, Jimin was particularly insistent on coming to this specific cafe, again, and there was nothing any of them could do to talk him into going someplace else. Despite the fact that there were a shocking amount of dangers posed by the four of them walking into an unowned cafe like it was nothing, tension has been running high between the four of them and another pretty prolific group. 

Jungkook may have accidentally threatened the wrong person, but you know, what's new?

That didn't mean they should be parading around in the open without real protection. 

Especially since Namjoon had a sneaking suspicion that he knew exactly why Jimin was insisting on this particular cafe. 

Min Yoongi. 

Jimin had always loved Magic Shop, but recently, after Min Yoongi had been hired to be exact, the boy had become an actual regular. Namjoon didn't understand why Taehyung didn't put an end to his boyfriend's frequent infidelity but the two had a weird dynamic to begin with, so he tried not to get involved. 

Anyway, Min Yoongi was the newest barista at Magic Shop and as soon as Jimin had layed eyes on the boy, he was smitten. Totally, illogically in lust, at the very least, with the boy who seemed too precious, too delicate to be involved in their sort of lifestyle. 

Namjoon tried not to judge, since he himself had been harboring not so secret infatuation with this very cafe's owner for months. 

Namjoon was just reaching the counter to order with Jungkook bouncing excitedly next to him, talking his ear off with a wide bunny smile when Taehyung and Jimin walked in. 

Jungkook immediately darted away from Namjoon with a joyful cry of "Hyungs!" as he engulfed both Jimin and Taehyung in gigantic hug. 

"Koo!" Namjoon called in annoyance as he stood at the counter waiting for the younger to tell him what he wants. He gives Min Yoongi an apologetic look, but Yoongi is so busy staring at Jimin he doesn't notice anyway. 

Namjoon rolls his eyes again. Thank god the cafe is empty, save for the four of them and Yoongi. Not many people searching for coffee at 6 pm.

Jungkook lets Taehyung and Jimin go and bounds back over to the counter, grinning widely. "Can I have a hot chocolate and cupcake, Yoongi-hyungie?" he asks beaming at the small man behind the counter. 

Yoongi huffs out a laugh. "You're such a child, Jungkook," he mutters, writing down the order. Truth be told, Yoongi loves it when this particular group of boys comes into the coffee shop. They bring something exciting with them, though he's not sure what it is. It feels a little bit like danger. 

Jungkook just grins wider, his eyes and nose scrunching as he moves aside for Namjoon to place his order.

Namjoon orders a regular latte and a bowl of soup. 

After he pays, he trails over to where Jungkook and Taehyung had sat at the corner table the four of them always get. 

"Can you believe it, hyung?" Jungkook exclaims in excited wonder, "It's already almost Christmas and it's supposed to snow soon! I love snow. You and Jiminie-hyung should come help Joon-hyung and I put up our Christmas tree! Please, TaeTae-hyungie?" Jungkook gives Taehyung his most effective pleading doe eyes.

"You're actually going to decorate?" Taehyung asks with raised eyebrows, watching the younger boy with amused affection. 

"Of course! It can't be Christmas without a tree!" Jungkook gives Taehyung a scandalized look, as if it made no sense to even suggest not decorating for Christmas. 

Namjoon shrugs at Taehyung's disbelieving glance. "We decorate every year. Koo likes it."

Taehyung grins at him, all toothy malice. "How...wholesome."

Jungkook crosses his arms and pouts. "Don't be mean, Taehyung. I like Christmas! I wanna put up a tree and you're gonna be there to help!" 

Teahyung looks at the petulant child coolly. Namjoon braces himself for some insult to come hurling out of Taehyung's mouth and Jungkook's subsequent let down. But Taehyung just sighs, and then smiles genuinely at Jungkook and murmurs a soft, "Okay, Koo" as Jimin finally makes his way over to their table to sit down. 

"Yay!" Jungkook whoops in celebration. 

"Yay what?" Jimin asks as he sits down. 

"While you were busy flirting with the poor barista, Jungkookie convinced Taehyung to help put up our Christmas tree," Namjoon informs him. 

Jimin gasps and turns to Taehyung with a betrayed expression. "You hate Christmas! You never let me put up a tree in our apartment."

Taehyung gives him an even look and the two seem to communicate silently for several seconds until Jimin sits back in his chair with a pout and mutters to himself about the unfairness of it all. 

Namjoon eyes the two of them suspiciously but Jungkook is too busy watching Yoongi bring his cupcake over to them to notice the odd moment. 

"Here you go, Kook," Yoongi smiles as he places a plate with his food on it in front of him, ruffling the younger's hair affectionately as he does so. 

"Aw, hyung," Jungkook protests, shaking his hair back out of his face angrily.

"You need to cut it, Kook," Yoongi notes, as he sets Namjoon and Jungkook's drinks in front of them. 

"I won't!" 

"Just trim it."

"No!"

"The ends are dead."

"NO!" Jungkook shoves Yoongi away from them.

"Yes. Seokjin's bringing the real food out in just a second. I'll grab you stuff in a minute, Tae, Minie," Yoongi calls over his shoulder as he head back over to the counter. He starts making Jimin and Taehyung whatever they ordered (tea for Tae and smoothie for Jimin). 

Jungkook munches happily on his cupcake as Namjoon and Taehyung begin a quiet discussion on what they're going to do about the threat of this other group that's apparently unhappy with the four of them. 

"I thought this was just about Jungkook's itchy fingers," Taehyung says with a sigh, "but apparently _somebody_..." He glares darkly at Jimin. "Couldn't keep it in his damn pants for one night. _Again_."

Namjoon chuckles. "Was it a sister, wife, aunt?"

"Brother."

"Ooh, spicy," Jungkook winks at Jimin, who wiggles his eyebrows in return.

"It was, too. He was very...vocal."

"We know hyung likes them loud." Jungkook and Jimin dissolves into cackles. 

Taehyung rolls his eyes. 

Namjoon looks a little disgusted. 

"Uhm, not really sure what conversation I'm interrupting but...here's your food," Seokjin interrupts, blushing and avoiding all their eyes. He places a bowl of soup in front of Namjoon and some sort of sandwich in front of Taehyung and Jimin. 

Namjoon looks up and once again freels all the breath leaves his lungs. It's always like this. Everytime he sees Seokjin, he just can't breathe anymore. 

Seokjin notices him staring and smiles at Namjoon sweetly. "It's been a while since I've gotten to see you all," he murmurs, turning his smile to the rest of them as well. "I know you never share much, but how are things?"

Seokjin does this with all of the regulars in his cafe. Keeps up with how they are, and what's going on in their lives. He's found that it makes people feel wanted, appreciated, and loved. 

"They're okay," Jimin smiles back at Jin wickedly, "though they'd be better if I could convince Yoongi to come home with me."

"Hey!" Yoongi calls from the counter, "I come home with you all the time!"

"But tonight though?" Jimin asks, turning to look over at Yoongi, who has stepped around the counter with Taehyung and Jimin's drinks in his hands. 

"I'm busy."

"You're always busy," Jimin pouts. 

Yoongi rolls his eyes and set Jimin's drink in front of him, and then Tae's. "You're welcome to come home with me, then."

Jimin perks up and reaches up to kiss Yoongi's cheek. "Thanks, lovely."

"Taehyung make your boyfriend stop seducing my staff," Seokjin mutters, giving Yoongi a look. 

"He's not my boyfriend," Taehyung mutters rolling his eyes, "and he never listens to me anyway."

Seokjin just sighs and shakes his head, looking at Yoongi's bright red face and now lipstick stained cheek. 

"What about the rest of you?" Seokjin turns to Jungkook and Namjoon. "How're those classes coming, Kookie?"

"Eh," Jungkook shrugs, "they're okay. Boring as fuck, but I'm doing well in all of them."

"Well, that's something. Joon?"

Namjoon has to think about it for a moment. "I'm alright, Jin-hyung. Stressed, as always, but okay."

Seokjin smiles softly at Namjoon and gently brushes the hair from the younger's forehead. "You know the cafe is always open. Just ring the doorbell."

Namjoon closes his eyes as Seokjin brushes through his hair a few times and smiles. "I know, hyung."

"Well, enjoy you're meal guys," Seokjin says finally, grabbing Yoongi by the shirt collar and dragging him toward the counter, "Jimin you're welcome to hang around until Yoongi's shift ends but he's not leaving a minute sooner than that."

"Yes, sir!" Jimin calls with a mock salute. 

The four of them return to quiet discussions of business. It's impertinent to let these people know that they're not someone to be messed with, but they don't want to outright attack them. It's really not worth it to go that far just yet.

So they determine to find someone they can make an example of without full on threatening the group itself. 

Namjoon and Jungkook head home pretty soon after the conclusion is reached. 

Jimin, of course, sticks around in the cafe until Yoongi's shift ends and then they head off to Yoongi's apartment together. 

Late in the night, long after the cafe is closed, Namjoon returns to the little glass door and rings the doorbell. 

He breathes in the cold air, his breath leaving him in white puffs.

"I thought you'd be coming back," Seokjin says with a smile as he pulls the door open. 

Namjoon follows the man upstairs into the little apartment above the cafe where Jin lives. 

There's Christmas music playing softly from an old record player that Namjoon had given Jin after the elder had mentioned loving listening to his grandmother's records during Christmas time a few years ago. 

The apartment's lights are off, save for Christmas lights lining the window and on an, as of yet, undecorated Christmas tree. The lights cast a warm colorful glow about the glow, that fill the wine glasses Jin pulls out with sparkles.

The two of them sit, snuggled together, on Jin's couch without speaking. 

This had become a pretty common occurence. Namjoon and his friends come into the cafe and work, and after the cafe closes Namjoon returns to soak up the warmth of Jin's companionship. 

He loves Jin. 

Jin loves him. 

They've talked about it before.

But both of them know nothing can ever come of it. Namjoon's lifestyle is too secretive, too dangerous. 

Tonight they get a very real taste of what that means.

No one sees it coming. 

No one knows how to handle it. 

Revenge is a deadly poison.

But it never goes down sweet.


	3. II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING
> 
> DEATH  
(i'm not sorry)  
(okay...I'm a little sorry)

** _I'll be home for Christmas_ **

Jungkook heard Namjoon leave their shared apartment. 

He threw the blanket off himself and got up. 

** _You can count of me_ **

He quietly threw on sweatpants, a sweat shirt and boots. 

He wanted to get Namjoon's Christmas gift finally, but his older brother hardly ever left him alone. 

** _Please have snow and mistletoe_ **

Jungkook had been waiting for the moment when Namjoon went to Seokjin's for the privacy of buying his gift without his brother hovering nearby. 

He grabbed his phone and headphones, turning on his favorite Christmas playlist to really get him the gift-buying spirit. 

Taehyung was supposed to meet up with him sometime tonight so he could help Jungkook pick out a gift for Jimin. 

** _And presents beneath the tree_ **

When Jungkook got to the small jewelry store a few blocks from their apartment, the owner was waiting to let him in and help him shop. 

There were benefits to owning, or knowing Tae and Jimin who owned damn near everything, buildings all over the city. Very few people will ever actually tell you no, and Jungkook liked to take full advantage of that. 

When they stepped into the store, they went straight into the back office, where Jungkook could begin discussing the design for the custom piece he was having made for Namjoon. 

It would be a small chain necklace that had the dates of the day they became legal brother engraved into a small pattern based off of a drawing that Jungkook had done. The drawing he'd created was sort of a combination of the two of them. The top was short and zigzagged rapidly before it swirled into what looked like the end of a treble clef. It wasn't a complicated thing, but Namjoon would love it, Jungkook was sure. 

** _Christmas eve will find me_ **

When they had gotten the design just right, Jungkook thanked the shop owner and payed the first down payment, entirely in cash before he left. 

He walked out to find snow falling quietly in the streets. 

He grinned to himself and headed down the street to the music store he was meeting Taehyung at. 

** _Where the love light gleams_ **

Jungkook had walked only two blocks when he started feeling oddly self-conscious. 

Hardly anyone was out this time of night, just the occasional person passing him on the sidewalk and a few cars. 

A few drunk men stumbled out of a bar he passed, laughing and shouting about something. 

** _I'll be home for Christmas_ **

Jungkook was pretty sure someone was following him now. 

There were steps that kept speeding up when he sped up and slowed when he did behind him. 

He knew better than to turn around and look. 

He reached into his sweater and gripped the knife he always carried with him. 

Namjoon didn't raise an idiot. 

He turned into an alley and turned to face whoever had followed him into it but he didn't even get the chance to attack. 

He didn't even hear the shot.

His blood seeped into the pure white ground like a wine stain, tarnishing the innocence and lovely light of the snow with it's horror. 

He didn't even scream. 

He just gasped on the snow desperately trying to pull the harsh air into his lungs. Fear clogged his throat. He couldn't even cry for help. 

He wanted his brother. He wanted his brother. Oh, god he wanted Namjoon.

He vaguely felt tears sliding over his temples as he lay there. Trickling out as steadily as the blood from his wound.

His mind screamed for his brother, frantically, but he couldn't force the words out of his mouth and into the air. He just gurgled and moaned helplessly.

It burned. 

And then it didn't anymore. 

Brown eyes stared up into the falling snow, struggling to blink.

He smiled.

Soft brown eyes closed. 

The last thing he felt was the gentle kiss of snow on his cheeks. 

** _If only in my dreams_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ......  
If it makes you feel any better, I'm pretty sure this killed me just as much as it killed you.


	4. III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning  
this chapter is all about the direct aftermath of the last chapter  
so it gets pretty intensely sad....  
If you like to enhance the sadness just pull out ur googler and type up a little Untold Truth and give it a listen while you read.   
Ur welcome.
> 
> Also Tae starts to go a little crazy in the end.  
so...yeah....

Jungkook had been missing for nearly three days. 

When Taehyung had called Namjoon three nights ago, Namjoon had dropped everything and a rabid search had started in the city. 

But he was no where to be found. 

Then there came a box. 

It arrived at Magic Shop, addressed to Kim Taehyung, Park Jimin and Kim Namjoon.

Seokjin called Namjoon immediately. He knew the nature of the business the three conducted. He was sure this was related. 

Jimin was livid. 

Namjoon was stoic, but his anger radiated off of him in waves. 

There was only one thing this could be. 

A threat.

The box was from a jewelry store, Namjoon recognized the brand as one of Tae's businesses. 

Inside there was a small necklace, and a note card. 

_What a sweet little bunny._

_Shame he didn't watch his back better._

_You know how it goes. _

_Blood for blood._

_Brother for brother._

_We offer our sincerest condolences._

A picture was attatched to the back of the card. 

Jungkook, lying on the ground in a puddle of his own blood. 

Dying. 

Dead, now, surely. 

Namjoon stared in silent horror. He felt his world stop, shift, and shatter in seconds.

He had failed. 

He had failed Jungkook. 

He had failed to take care of his baby brother. 

He had failed. 

Jimin had been looking over Namjoon's shoulder.

His hand flew up to his mouth and his eyes filled with tears. 

He whimpered as shocked tears dripped down his cheeks, and Tae was instantly by his side. 

Jimin looked over at Tae with wide unblinking eyes that terrified him. 

"Koo," Jimin whispered, his voice cracking as sobs welled up in his throat. 

Taehyung glanced up at Yoongi and the barista quickly abandoned his post and made his way over to Jimin, wrapping his arms around the shaking boy and holding his close. Yoongi softly shushed Jimin and called for Seokjin to come and close the shop. 

Seokjin walked out of the back office with his hands on his hips, about to tell Yoongi off for such ludicrous ideas when he saw the growing hysteria coming from the group. He went to the door and flipped the sign. They had been empty most of the day anyway. 

"Let me see that, Joon-hyung," Tae said, quietly. Namjoon blankly let Taehyung take the note and picture from his hands. 

Seokjin came over and crouched down beside Namjoon, trying to get the other to talk to him, or look at him or anything at all really. 

Namjoon finally glanced at him and his mouth moved but no sound came out. He started to cry. 

Jin pulled Namjoon into his arms in alarm. 

"What on earth?" he mouthed to Yoongi.

Yoongi shrugged and shook his head, looking equally confused as Jimin clung to him and sobbed harshly. 

That's when Taehyung screamed. 

It was loud, angry, tortured. A sound that Yoongi would hardly classify as human. 

Jimin whimpered again and immediately fell silent. 

Namjoon held his breath.

Taehyung swept his hand over the table the three of them had been sitting at with food and drinks that Jin had forced them to take.

"Taehyung!" Jin cried out as he heard the shattering.

Taehyung didn't even blink.

"They will die for this," he said, into the resounding silence. 

Jin's eyes widened.

Yoongi's brows furrowed further. 

"I will kill every single last one of them, slowly. Painfully, and they will be a lesson to everyone. _Do not touch my things," _Taehyung's voice was barely a growl, low and menacing. 

"Taetae," Jimin whispered pitifully, "taetae calm down."

Taehyung didn't even hear him. He was too caught up in his own head, his own sorrow. 

He turned around and left the shop, blood from his knuckles staining the floor as he went. 

"His hand" Jimin muttered, blearily pulling away from Yoongi, "he has to fix his hand."

Jimin stumbled after Taehyung, even though he could barely stop crying long enough to see.

Yoongi looked at Seokjin, who gave him a shooing motion. Yoongi hurried off after Taehyung and Jimin. 

"Namjoon-ah?" Seokjin murmured softly after the room had settled, "Joonie, can you talk to me, baby?" Seokjin rubbed Namjoon's back soothingly. 

Namjoon didn't even look at Seokjin when he started whispering. "He's gone. He's gone. He's dead and I failed. I failed my Jungkookie. I failed him. He's gone."

Seokjin's eyes widened even larger. 

"He's gone. It's my fault. Jungkook is dead, Jin, and IT'S MY FAULT!" Namjoon turned to Seokjin and grabbed the other by his shirt, shaking him, sobbing, "I failed him, Jin, I failed my Koo and now he's fucking dead." Namjoon dissolved into hysterical sobs.

"Joon, you need to breathe, honey," Seokjin's voice cracked though as he shoved thoughts of whatever the hell Namjoon was talking about from his mind. 

Jungkook dead?

Impossible. 

He was just a kid. 

A sweet, adorable, albeit dangerous, kid. 

A little bunny.

Bun.

They all called him Bun. 

He couldn't be dead.

Could he?

* * *

When Yoongi caught up to Jimin the younger boy was sitting in the middle of the street. He was sobbing there on the ground, curled into a ball, clutching the side of his face with a circle of concerned people gathering around him. 

"He hit me!" Jimin cried as soon as Yoongi managed to get to the center of the crowd and pull Jimin back into his arms. "Taetae hit me!" Jimin sobbed harder, clutching at Yoongi desperately. "Why would he hit me?"

"It's okay, sunshine," Yoongi murmured softly, glaring at the people still staring at them. He tried waving everyone on their way but still people were lingering. "He's just very upset, I'm sure he didn't mean it."

"He _hit me!_ Taetae _never_ hits me. No matter how mad he get at me." Jimin kept babbling between his sobs. 

A concerned lady moved forward and crouched down next to Yoongi and Jimin. "Honey, if someone's hitting you, you should tell the police," she said gently. 

Yoongi knew she was only trying to help. 

He knew she had the best intentions in mind. 

But that didn't stop him from snapping at her. 

"Just leave us the fuck alone," he growled, curling protectively around Jimin, "ALL OF YOU LEAVE US THE FUCK ALONE!"

People started muttering and walking away, most of them looking back and giving Yoongi a dirty look. 

"Come one, sunshine, back to my apartment, come on." Yoongi slid an arm under Jimin's knees and wrapped the other around his shoulder to pick him up. He carried Jimin, who just clung to him and sobbed, the whole way to his apartment. 

By the time they arrived, Jimin had exhausted himself crying. He was barely awake anymore. Yoongi layed him down in his bed and made to leave but Jimin clutched his hand and whined for him to stay. 

"I'll be right back, sunshine," Yoongi said softly, kissing Jimin's forehead and going to get him a cup of water for when he inevitably woke up with a headache. 

While he was in the kitchen his phone buzzed in his pocket. 

He pulled it out and saw a text from Jin. 

**Jinnie-hyungie: **u have to know what happened but I have like 2 sec before Joon comes out of the bathroom 

Kookie is dead shot That's all I know

Tell Jimin I love him

Pls tell me u heard from T

**Yoongles: **WTF u can't just

No I havent heard from Tae

I'll sic Hobi on him

Call me asap

Jinnie?

When Jin didn't answer Yoongi sighed, blinking his burning eyes rapidly. 

He grabbed the glass of water his shaking hands and promptly dropped is on the kitchen floor. 

"Fuck," he muttered. He moved to grab a kitchen towel. His vision blurred with tears and he leaned down to clean up the water. 

He didn't feel the glass digging into his palm as he hung his head and took deep breaths the just hitched in his throat and made the urge to cry burn even closer. 

He threw the towel down on the water and grabbed his phone again. 

Hoseok picked up on the third ring. 

"I'm not covering the rest of your shift, you lazy ass bum, get your ass back to work."

"Hobi, you gotta find Taehyung. I don't know what's going on but Jungkook was shot and I'm with Jimin and Jin is with Namjoon." Yoongi took deep shuddering breaths. "We don't know where he is but he's not thinking straight, threatening to kill people and shit, Hobi you gotta find him."

"What the actual fuck, Yoongi, what's going on!" Yoongi heard crashing on the other end of the phone and then a loud thump.

"I don't know either. Just go find Taehyung."

Yoongi hung up and sat back against the cabinet doors for a moment, pressing his face into his arm. 

Finally, he just got up, leaving the glass, water and blood and went to crawl into bed next to Jimin. 

Everything else could wait. 

Right now, they needed each other. 

* * *

Hoseok ran out of the dance studio he was in and tried to dial Taehyung's phone. 

He kept trying and trying to call as he drove every single street in the god forsaken town looking for the younger boy. 

He finally found him on a second pass on main street. 

"Tae!" he yelled as he got out of his car, leaving it running on the side of the street. 

The other didn't answer. 

He stared into the shop window blankly, looking more dangerous than Hoseok had ever seen him before. 

"Tae, come on, we have to get in the car and go home. You need to process nonviolently for a little while." Hoseok went up and gently touched Taehyung's shoulder. 

"They have to die, hyung," Tae said without looking back at him. 

Hoseok shivered at his dark tone. 

"Just...come home for now, yeah?"

"He was supposed to meet me that night," Taehyung looked over at Hoseok. His eyes were clear, lethal, and under all that, broken. "I was going to bring him here. Because he loves Christmas and I was going to tell him that I loved him."

Hoseok stared at Taehyung. 

The other boy suddenly looked so young. Still scary and like he might snap at any moment, but young. Young and broken. 

It wasn't fair. 

_No,_ Hoseok thought,_ this was exactly fair. _

And in a way, it was. 

It was exactly fair. 

Blood for blood. 

Brother for brother. 

Lover for lover.

Child for child. 

This was the kind of fair that no one wanted to acknowledge. 

Taehyung's world dealt in that kind of fair.

He was used to being the one dealing, not the dealt. 

"I'm sorry, Taehyung," was all Hoseok could think to say.

Teahyung turned back to the window. 

"We had it coming."

They did.

"But now, just as we have payed for our sins, so must they."

Taehyung looked back over at Hoseok. His eyes were cold, dead almost. 

"But unlike God, I do not know mercy."

Taehyung smiled, a twisted evil thing that took Hoseok's breath away and genuinely terrified him. 

Taehyung turned and walked away. 

Hoseok let him go.


	5. IV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING  
Domestic violence

Taehyung returns a day later. 

He shows up at Yoongi's apartment covered in what Yoongi chooses to believe isn't blood and thanks Yoongi for taking care of Jimin while he was gone as if he had only been gone on a normal business trip and Jimin were his dog or something. 

"It's...fine, I guess," Yoongi mutters, inviting Taehyung in, "do you need to clean up?"

"No, we're going home now." Taehyung's words are clipped and if Yoongi didn't know any better, he would just assume that Taehyung didn't like him.

"Are you sure that's a good idea, Tae? You look like you need sleep." Yoongi frowns at Taehyung in concern.

"I'm fine." Taehyung glances sideways at Yoongi. 

Yoongi wants to argue with him.

"Jimin, let's go," Taehyung snaps as Jimin comes out of Yoongi's bedroom and stands against the doorway, making no move toward Taehyung.

"Why would I go with someone who hits me?" Jimin asks coolly, examining his hands. 

"You can't be serious." Teahyung rolls his eyes. "Jimin, I don't have time for this."

Jimin pouts like a petulant child. 

"Hey, maybe you should both sit down and talk about this first. And then you can go home," Yoongi suggests gently. The tension between the two is palpable. 

"We don't have time for that," Taehyung insists, looking pointedly at Jimin, "we have to leave _now._"

"What if I don't want to," Jimin retorts, moving into the room and sitting on Yoongi's couch primly. 

"You don't have a choice." Taehyung goes to stand in front of him, holding a hand, clearly expecting Jimin to take it.

"I'm not going." 

"What?" Taehyung's face starts to twist into anger. 

"I'm not going. I'm staying here until you apologize."

"You're not staying with your god damn _side piece_, Park Jimin. Let's go," Taehyung growls at Jimin. 

Jimin doesn't even look at him. "I'm not going with someone who will _abandon me_ for his secret love affair," Jimin snaps right back. 

Yoongi tries to intercede again. "You need to go home, Minie. Just go home with Tae."

"I didn't abandon you I left you with Yoongi," Taehyung says dismissively, as if that makes everything better. Both boys ignore Yoongi entirely. 

"YOU HIT ME," Jimin screeches, finally snapping, "YOU HIT ME. And for what?! Jeon Jungkook?! He's dead! You hit me for a dead guy!"

Taehyung's eyes immediately flash dangerously, darkening to the point that Yoongi questions is he's still looking at a human being. 

Taehyung's hand wraps around Jimin's throat and he lifts the other boy, slamming his small body against the wall of Yoongi's living room. 

Yoongi makes a distressed noise and grabs Taehyung's arm, tugging uselessly, begging him to let Jimin go. He feels confused tears gather in his eyes as he watches Jimin struggle to breathe, fighting his hardest against his best friend. 

Jimin coughs and sputters against Taehyung's grip on him. "Does that make you mad, Taetae?" he splutters, smiling cruelly even as he starts to see little black dots in his vision. 

Taehyung presses into Jimin's throat harder. 

Jimin's mouth works open and closed but no sound come out. 

"Don't. Test. Me." Taehyung growls into Jimin's ear. 

Jimin's eyes roll back and his body falls limp in Taehyung's grasp. 

"Much better," Taehyung mutters as he releases Jimin, letting him fall to the ground with a heavy thud. 

Yoongi instantly drops to his knees and brushes Jimin's hair from his face and seeks for his pulse. 

He finds it, although it's weak and frantic. 

"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Yoongi screams at Taehyung, who just stands there looking down at Jimin's crumpled body emotionlessly. 

"He forgot who's in charge here," Taehyung says with a shrug. 

"GET THE HELL OUT OF MY APARTMENT," Yoongi demands, standing up and pointing to the door. 

"Don't take him to the hospital. I'll know if you do, and it won't be pretty." Taehyung looks back down at Jimin as he moves toward the door. "He needs to feel this for days."

"That's your soulmate you're talking about!" Yoongi cries, distressed and confused, watching Taehyung just simply leave.

"Yes, it is." Taehyung pauses with his hand on the doorknob. "I'll be back for him in three days. He'll either come with me, or he'll be punished...again."

Taehyung left without looking back. 

Yoongi stands there in shocked silence until he hears Jimin start to whimper from the floor. 

Jimin doesn't get his voice back for three days. 

Taehyung comes back within that time. 

Neither of them explain anything to Yoongi, who is still overly distressed and doesn't really want Jimin to leave with Taehyung, for obvious reasons. 

He doesn't really get an opinion and Jimin leaves with Taehyung despite everything in Yoongi screaming to stop him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah...Tae and Jimin's relationship is fucked up.   
We'll find out why very soon.  
They'll be okay, eventually.


	6. V

Yoongi doesn't see or hear from Taehyung or Jimin for a few days. 

In fact, none of the Magic Shop staff hear from them. 

They don't hear from Namjoon either, which distresses Jin to no end. 

The next time any of them get to know anything about what's happening in that other world is when Jin gets a note from Namjoon stating the date and location of Jungkook's funeral. 

There's nothing so crushing as showing up to an empty church. 

Whether it's a wedding or a funeral or a dedication, we hold an expectation that despite everything that goes wrong, people will want to celebrate life. When that turns out not to be the case, it breaks our hearts because if nothing else can be celebrated, then living should be. A person should be celebrated. 

This time, there's no one to show up. 

Jin and Yoongi and Hoseok arrive together to find only Namjoon, Taehyung and Jimin standing on the edge of the ocean, staring out into the vastness of the water.

The water reminds Namjoon of how much Jungkook loved to swim. How much he loved to come to the beach and build sand castles as a child. How much he loved the soothing sounds and rush of wind and salty tang as he got older. The two of them came to ocean to escape the city. There would be no more escaping, now. 

The blue reminds Jimin of the time he and Jungkook decided to paint his room with no warning, so Namjoon came home from work to find them both collapsed on the couch, covered in blue paint. The apartment had reeked of chemicals for day, but Jungkook loved his new room color so Namjoon wasn't mad at them for very long. 

The scattering of foam on the sand reminds Taehyung of the one truth he had always known. The one he'd chosen to ignore when it came to Jungkook. 

Life is fleeting. 

Like sea foam, it is there for seconds, and then it scatters away against the jagged shards of rock, the courseness of sand, or it disappears into itself and leaves to trace or memory behind it. 

There's nothing really to say. 

What can you say, when life is cut so short?

What can you say?

Yoongi knows. He knows that there are things you can say, things you shouldn't say, and things nobody wants to here. 

So he starts talking, an unofficial priest for the unofficial sinner.

It's only fitting, really. 

"If there were ever a time when we needed you, Jungkook, it would be now. That's how it always goes. You never need the things you have, but always the things you don't. Because of that, I think we're all a little sorry. Sorry for not knowing that we needed you. Sorry for not knowing how precious you were to us. And god were you precious. The cutest little bun that ever walked into the shop, even with all you're tattoos and piercings and that god awful hair. Which I suppose you don't have to cut now. We'll miss you, Kookie. We already do."

Jin set a little stuffed bunny down in the sand and patted it's head. 

"So some little kid can find you and keep you happy forever, Koo," he said, sniffling softly. 

Jimin was crying openly with Jin. Taehyung and Namjoon were staring resolutely at the edge of the world as if it held all the answers. Jin's tears dripped down his face gently. Hoseok and Yoongi just glanced around at the little group around them. 

There was something that kept a wall seperating them into two groups and neither of them could really figure out what that was. The division had always been there, but now it felt like it was miles wide. Like Jungkook had someone been the bridge and now there was nothing left to hold the six of them together. 

"Do you all want to come back to Magic Shop," Jin asked, after they had stood there for several minutes of silence.

"Jimin and I will not be going," Taehyung said shortly, giving Jimin a pointed look. 

Jimin bit his lip and looked at the ground.

"One last time, Tae?" Namjoon pleaded with a deep weary sigh, "for Koo."

Taehyung went stiff which Yoongi didn't think was possible considering how stiff he had been the whole time.

Jimin looked up at Taehyung with a guarded but still pleading expression. 

Yoongi held his breath. 

Taehyung glanced over at him. 

"No," he said decidedly, "Jungkook is dead. There is no reason for me to do anything for him anymore."

He turned and walked away, grabbing Jimin by the wrist and pulling him along after him. 

Jimin didn't look back. 

Namjoon stood there, wathcing Taehyung leave with shallow breathing. 

Jin reached out to Namjoon hesitantly. 

He didn't make it before Namjoon was throwing his head back and yelling as loud as he could into the cold air above him. 

There's nothing so broken as man who has failed his whole world. 

Failed to protect his own heart and the one that meant more to him than life itself. 

Jin stayed with Namjoon, standing silently in the background as Yoongi and Hoseok trudged away from the scene, letting Jin pick up Namjoon's broken pieces as best as he could. 

Jin comes back alone.

No one asks. 


	7. VI

Jimin and Taehyung hardly speak to each other at home anymore. Jimin goes around to his clubs a lot more than usual now and Taehyung is busying himself with things that Jimin doesn't want to think about. 

The smell of blood lingers everywhere that Taehyung goes and it terrifies Jimin. 

He's never seen his best friend this broken before. 

Sure, Taehyung has lost his mind before, but never like this. Never so completely. He's never been so inhuman as this. 

Jimin hasn't spoken to Yoongi in 3 months. 

It's been that long since the incident. 

The one that Jimin's heart refuses to believe is true. 

Little Kook.

There's no way. 

Anyway, he's helping prepare the opening of a club that night. He's there mostly to supervise. He'd been in this particular club since before it opened, helping with some practical things, running some numbers and checking up on some suspected foul play in the building. He'd decided to stick around when he over heard some unfavorable staff talking about his girls in less than savory ways. Plus, there was supposed to be live music tonight and he was always down with that. 

He's not about that sold to the fastest bidder life. 

Only the highest for his lovelies, as he called them. 

What he didn't expect was to find Yoongi sitting at the counter of his bar, nursing an old fashioned.

He didn't expect the rush of emotion that swelled in his innermost heart at the sight of the now purple haired lover. 

"Fancy meeting you here," he said, going for a casual tone as he slid onto the stool next to Yoongi and ordered a botanical Gin and Tonic. 

"Is it now?" Yoongi asked, glancing at him. 

Jimin watched the other's eyes widen minutely. 

Jimin always dressed to kill and tonight was no exception.

Leather pants and a light flowing, translucent, purple shirt we subtle enough to pass as casual but just over the top enough to draw attention, especially considering the dark ink etched into the skin of his chest and side. 

"You're staring," Jimin commented, raising an eyebrow at Yoongi. 

"You look good."

"Not so bad yourself."

It wasn't not true. The purple really did suit Yoongi, just as Jungkook always said it would. It made him look softer, but the dark eyeliner, dark tshirt, and black jeans helped to keep his preferred image intact. What suprised Jimin the most was the robe-like coat that Yoongi wore. It was bright red and clashed horribly with his purple hair, but for some reason Yoongi managed to pull it off. 

"I'll be right back," Yoongi said as he looked at the clock on the wall and then disappeared through the throngs of people. 

Jimin was a little stunned at the abrupt ending to their conversation. 

The lights in the club dimmed to let everyone know that the live music was getting ready to start.

Jimin was shocked when he looked up at the stage and saw Yoongi with the DJ.

A few minutes later, the lights dimmed completely until the only thing left on were black lights. 

A drum began to echo through the club, continuing on its own for several rounds before the bass dropped and filled the club with a marching rhythm.

When Yoongi started rapping, Jimin was actually shocked.

He was good. 

Good and fast.

And Jimin could attest that the tongue technology was really as good as he said it was. 

Yoongi's stage was full of hype, excitement, anger, and the best kind of rebellion. It was music that made you feel like you could destroy the world and watch it burn without caring. 

It was cathartic.

Jimin made up his mind as he watched Yoongi on stage. 

Consequences be damned, he was going home with Yoongi tonight. 

The man he loved. 

He wouldn't be returning to Taehyung tonight. 

Not ever. 

When Yoongi came off stage he bounded over to Jimin, sweaty and grinning.

"Bet you didn't expect that!" Yoongi yelled at him, despite the people dying to talk to him, see him, touch him. Get a piece of Augst'D.

Jimin wanted Min Yoongi just fine. 

"Take me home," he demanded, letting Yoongi's body press against him, talking lowly in his ear. 

Yoongi looked up at Jimin with questioning eyes. 

Jimin looked back at him evenly. 

His mind was made up. 

They left together. 

Jimin had never been more elated. 

* * *

_3 Months Earlier_

"You think he's gonna stay with you when he learns what you are," Taehyung demanded as they walked into their apartment. 

Jimin didn't say anything. 

"Answer me, Park Jimin," Taehyung's voice dropped dangerously. 

"No." Jimin wasn't dumb. No one wants a whore.

"Good boy."

Jimin couldn't help the response Taehyung's praise brought out of him. He keened softly as Taehyung turned and cornered him in the entry of the apartment the two of them had shared since forever.

"So cut him off then, yeah?" Taehyung murmured softly. 

Jimin closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the wall behind him. 

Taehyung brushed his fingers over Jimin's cheek gently. "I know you love him. You need to let him go, Chim," Taehyung's voice was gentle now. The voice Jimin had grown up listening to. The one he'd fallen for and the one that had told him to run far away from day one. 

He hadn't listened. 

He thinks that maybe he should've. 

"Before he ends up with a bullet in his skull."

Jimin didn't know if that was a prediction, a threat, or a promise.

He didn't really want to find out. 

* * *

Jimin had means to protect Yoongi himself. 

He could do it. 

He would do it. 

Because there was nothing in the world that made him feel more like himself than when he had Yoongi beneath him, shivering and moaning, clutching at him like he was the only thing that mattered. 

He wanted this forever with Yoongi. 

This gentle stillness in the afterglow where they basked in the warmth of each other and laughed about the grossness and whined about not wanting to get up. 

This blissful play as they face each other in the shower, hands trailing over bodies lazily.

This soft seeking where Yoongi asks about the tattoos that Jimin chose to carve into himself and Jimin asks what on earth possessed Yoongi to get nipple piercings. 

This beautiful feeling that Jimin hesitated to call love for months until he realized that he didn't want to live without Yoongi.

It's the early morning hours before either of them fall asleep and they barely sleep at all before Yoongi has to get up for work.

Jimin doesn't mind, because Yoongi lets Jimin stay in bed and gives him the sweetest kiss on him forehead as he leaves. 

Jimin doesn't mind because there's nothing as simple and easy and lovely as loving Yoongi. 

And he's finally determined to do it. 


	8. VII

Namjoon didn't really know what to do with his life now. 

He became a much harsher leader than before. 

His reputation started growing in it's wide tales of brutality and he didn't seem to notice or care. 

The more he searched for whoever took his Koo away, the crazier he started to feel.

Everything was a dead end and if it wasn't he made sure it was by the time he was done searching it. 

Taehyung was doing the same as him, except without so much of the thought and effort, and more of the just killing part. 

Neither of them had heard from Jimin recently and both were starting to grow concerned. 

They tried everything they could to track Jimin down while they searched for Koo but they came up empty there too. 

One such search lead Namjoon to this moment. 

He's standing in a bar, high end, very classy, one of Jimin's biggest competitors. 

There have been rumors of the owner of the bar making threats and underhanded stabs at Jimin for a while but they had never thought anything of it, because the guy had a pretty small reach even if he was pretty successful. 

This guy was also supposedly the owner of the camera the video of Jungkook had been shot on. 

Namjoon didn't expect to get straight to source so easily but turns out this guy liked to be present in his own bars nearly every night. 

So there he was, not expecting Joon to corner him in his office, unarmed and looking like he might just die of fear on the spot. 

Namjoon's eyes are so cold now. 

Cold as the snow Jungkook had died on. 

Namjoon casually toyed with the knife in his hands, not taking his eyes off the bar owner for two seconds. 

"Where is Jimin?" he asked flatly.

"Not here."

"Riiiight. But where is he?" Namjoon rolled his eyes and ran his finger over the edge of his knife. The guy was sitting in his chair trying to pretend like he was confident enough to continue sitting. 

"I don't know."

"Bullshit." Namjoon rushed forward and stabbed his knife into the hand laying on the desk. 

The guy cried out and curled over his hand. When he reached his other hand forward to pull the knife out of it, Namjoon reached out, slammed that hand on the desk and stuck another knife into his palm. 

The guy cried out again, slumping down. 

Blood dripped across dark wood and onto white carpet slowly. 

Is that how Jungkook's blood looked dripping into the snow?

The very thought made Namjoon see red. 

"You'd be wise to fess up to whatever it is you did with Jimin..." Namjoon looks sideways at the guy. "And why you were able to take a picture of my dead brother before I let Taehyung catch you."

"I haven't done anything with Jimin." The guy looks nervously at the door as if expecting Taehyung to come in right then. 

He was here, of course. But he was letting Namjoon handle it for now. 

Namjoon was going to get him when he was done interrogating.

"Wrong answer," Namjoon growled. 

He grabbed one of the knives stuck in the desk and yanking it out of the guys hand. Then he plunged it with as much effort as possible into his forearm.

The guy screamed. 

Namjoon felt sticky blood flow ever his gloved hand as he twisted the knife in his guys arm. 

"Want to answer again?"

"I don't know anything about Jimin! Rumors are he dipped with some ho he was chasing. As for your brother...." the guy cringed as he watched Namjoon's face contort into a very blank mask of anger. "I was just the messenger."

"A messenger that took the picture with his own camera?" Namjoon twisted the knife in the guy's hand. Flesh tore away and when he looked, Namjoon could see raw muscle coming up where he was twisted. 

The guy screamed again. 

"I WASN'T THERE," he cried out, "I was payed to give them my camera and that's it! I wasn't there!"

"Who approached you?"

"Called himself N."

Namjoon's eye widened. 

He had heard that name before. 

N was the leader of a mafia that rivaled his and Taehyung's and Jimin's combined. In fact, it used to be all separate operations until N united all of it and made it stronger than ever.

No one Namjoon couldn't take down, but it was definitely not just the average joe that Namjoon had thought Kook had threatened.

_Brother for Brother_

Sanghyuk.

There wasn't a lot people knew about N's operation but everyone knew that you didn't mess with his little brother. Anyone who did ended up dead or worse. 

Jungkook, you fucking idiot, Namjoon hissed in his head. 

Surely the other boy had known better. 

Why had he gone for someone so well protected? Someone nobody could touch? Why?

Why had he invoked the wrath of N? 

What had he invoked the wrath of Leo, N's older brother and most deadly assassin in the business? 

Why, Kook?

Now, Namjoon just felt sad. 

He pressed his finger to activate the com in his ear. 

"He's all yours, Tae," he said walking out and not looking back, "burn his shit to the ground."

He didn't look back as he walked out into the city night. 

**The Next Day**

_Bar Mysteriously Catches Fire in the Middle of the Night, Fire Department Investigating Cause, Owner Thought to Have Been Inside at the Time_

"They're getting closer," Leo mutters darkly, not looking up from his newspaper.

"Not quite close enough, though."

N reaches over and brushes his finger over long, fluffy brown hair.

"Are they, little one?"


	9. VIII

Hakyeon sat folded himself into a sitting position on Jin's sofa, sipping from a glass of red wine with a sigh. 

Jin sits down next to him with an equally loud sigh. 

They two look at each other for a moment and giggle a little bit. 

"So, how's work been?" Jin asked, taking a sip from his glass. 

Hakyeon groaned and laughed. "Crazy right now. We're so busy trying to merge with this one other company but they're just not seeming to get the message."

"Huh, that's weird. Maybe you should try to meet with the owner or something," Jin suggested, leaning his head back on the couch.

"Yeah, maybe. The guy's like untouchable though. No one ever meets with him."

"Ah, but how can anyone say no to you, my friend?"

"How indeed," Hakyeon laughed and clinked his glass against Jin's with a smile. 

The two fell into talking about Seokjin's cafe and new menu items he was thinking of introducing as long as he could convince Yoongi to learn how to make them. 

"Aren't you his boss? Doesn't he kind of have to do what you say?" Hakyeon asked in a bemused tone. 

"I mean, technically, I guess," Jin admitted, "but I like it when he happily does things. That makes them taste better."

"You're too soft, Jinnie," Hakyeon sighed. He clucked his tongue like a disappointed mother. "That's no way to run a business."

"Excuse you, my business is incredibly successful."

"And one day you're gonna find yourself on the end of mutany."

"Funny, I think the same thing about you, Mr. Military."

Hakyeon ran a strict business. Jin didn't know what kind, but he knew that his friend was very anal about his rules being followed and carried out to the exact T. Like a military general. 

Hakyeon rolled his eyes and smirked. "How can there be mutany if I fire everyone who doesn't agree with me?"

"That's a fair point. But then you have to watch out for the shadows. Employees who feel wronged are no joke."

"You would know. You were one." Hakyeon gives Jin a look over the rim of his wine glass as he takes a long sip. 

"Shut up. So were you! We quit together remember?" Jin laughs and shoves at Hakyeon's laughing face. They had worked at the same dress shop as teenagers and when the owner had refused service to a young couple looking for a simple wedding dress all because they were both women, the two of them had staged a coup and left. 

It had been one of the greatest moments of their friendship.

They had written horrible reviews, reported the owner, and gotten the whole business publicly shamed by the LGBT community in the area within weeks. 

"I think we were fired," Hakyeon corrects, still laughing.

"We fired ourselves."

"We fired him, really."

The two of them burst out laughing even louder together. 

"How are you're stunning employees, by the way?" Hakyeon asks when they've both calmed down. 

Jin cringes. "Yoongi's let this guy just move in with him. We both know him and I love the kid but...he's sketchy. I don't know if he's right for my innocent little Yoongles."

Hakyeon snorts. "Your innocent little Yoongles told me to go fuck myself and my brother the first time I ever layed eyes on him. I don't think he's helpless. Doesn't he smoke like a million cigarettes a day?"

Jin chuckled and shook his head. "Yeah he does smoke too much. But really Yoongi only looks scary. He's all bark and no bite. He's actually the smallest little bean on the planet who needs to be protected at all costs."

Hakyeon laughs. "I'll believe that when I see it."

"You know, that's fair." Jin nods at him with a teasing smile, but it quickly drops off his face as he thinks about Yoongi's situation. "I just...I don't know, Hakyeon-ah. This guy he's with, Jimin, I don't know him very well but I know his friends and..." Jin shudders. "They're bad bad people. I don't want Yoongi caught up in all of that. He can't handle it."

Hakyeon's ears perk at the name Jimin, but he hides his interest in a casual drink from his glass. "If they're such bad people how do you know them? No one is as pure as you Jinnie." 

"They're all regulars at magic shop. One of them I am...incredibly intimate with. One of them just recently died, poor thing. He was the sweetest little kid that ever came into my cafe, even if he did lowkey terrify me. And the other...god he's fucking terrifying. Like he has no human emotion, he just...is." Jin shudders when he thinks of Taehyung. "Anyway, they're all messed up in some sort of bad business and I just don't want Yoongi to end up like them." _Or like me _he doesn't say.

Hakyeon hums contemplatively. "Maybe you should talk to Yoongi. Tell him you're concerns."

"I have. He just says that he has everything under control. Problem is, I don't know how much I can say without crossing any boundaries."

Hakyeon gives Jin's hand a sympathetic squeeze. "Well, you'll just have to trust that Yoongi is a grown man who can handle his own life choices, okay? No use in worrying about someone who doesn't want to be worried about."

Jin smiles at him friend a little sadly and nods. 

The two move on to talking about new hobbies and other meaningless chitchat and Jin forgets all about their conversation on Yoongi and Jimin. 

Hakyeon doesn't and as soon as he leaves Jin's apartment building he places a call. 

"Leo," he says, watching his breath disappear in the air before him, "I have good news."

"I sure hope you do, waking me up at fuck o'clock in the fucking morning. What the actual hell?"

"I know where Park Jimin is."


	10. IX

It's a few weeks later that another suspicious package arrives on the doorstep of the Magic Shop.

It's carefully addressed by hand, but distinctly nondescript writing. 

Trackable, but not easily.

They want to be found this time. 

When Taehyung and Namjoon show up, they're both shocked that Jimin isn't there. 

Taehyung feels his heart clench in his chest. 

If they've taken Jimin.

Inside the package is a picture, a keychain, and a note.

The picture is of Jimin. Taehyung knows it's Jimin even though his head is covered by a large hood.

He's being held down on his knees by someone behind him that Taehyung can't really make out, the picture is grainy.

Taehyung feels the bile rise in his throat. He feels the panic twist in his stomach. He feels anger quickly replace that fear. 

"They have Minie," he growls out at Namjoon who is sitting across from him at the corner table of Magic Shop. 

Namjoon looks up in alarm and grabs the photo. 

He studies it. 

"That guy said he was with a lover, though."

"A lover? Jimin didn't..."

Taehyung falls silent as he realizes what this means. Namjoon hadn't told him anything about what the guy they'd...dealt with had said about Jimin. Taehyung didn't even know that Namjoon had asked him about Jimin. Now, he supposes he knew why Namjoon hadn't said anything. 

Taehyung stands up, his chair falling to the ground behind him. 

He stalks across the cafe, and even though there are other costumers in the building he grabs Yoongi's shirt collar and slams him into the wall behind the bar. 

"Where the FUCK is Jimin?" he demands, holding Yoongi up off his feet with a hand around his throat. 

"How the fuck should I know?" Yoongi coughs out.

A few people in the cafe cry out and a couple of guys rush toward the fight.

Jin comes darting out of the kitchen and puts a hand on Taehyung's shoulder.

"You're the only whore he would disobey me to go to. What the fuck did you do to him?" Taehyung's grip tightens and he jerks his shoulder out of Jin's grasp.

"Less than you did you sick ass fucker," Yoongi spits in disgust, "are you gonna make me pass out too? Do you get off on that?"

Taehyung lifts him up from the wall, only to slam him back agianst with enough force to crack the plaster and make Yoongi see stars. 

"KIM TAEHYUNG!" Namjoon shouts, getting to his feet and rushing over now that the shock has worn down.

"WHERE THE FUCK IS MY SOULMATE?" Taehyung yells, squeezing Yoongi's throat again.

Yoongi claws at Taehyung's wrist and manages to choke out, "somewhere safer than he is with you."

"YAH KIM TAEHYUNG!" Hoseok comes barreling out of the back of the store and throws himself right in between Yoongi and Taehyung, pushing at Taehyung's arm to get him to release Yoongi. "LET HIM GO OR SO HELP ME GOD I WILL MURDER YOUR ASS."

Taehyung raises an eyebrow and looks down at Hoseok doubtfully.

Hoseok gives him the same cold arched brow in return. 

Taehyung flings Yoongi to the side with a short growl, straightening the cuffs of his dress shirt as Yoongi gasps and splutters on the ground.

"Taehyung read the note." Namjoon thrusts the note at Taehyung as Hoseok leans down to pick Yoongi up off the ground.

Taehyung takes the note.

_What a lovely thing it is to find a soulmate._

_Such a shame we had to take him from you. _

_Hope you use this little clue wisely._

_Time is running out for you Kim Taehyung. _

_Good luck._

"So this is just all some sick twisted game?" Taehyung demands. "For what?"

Namjoon holds up the keychain. It has a little snow globe with an even tinier Seoul Tower hanging on it.

"For Seoul."


	11. X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING  
brief mention of rape/non-con  
I'll be updating tag  
Please keep youselves safe and if you want to continue reading this without reading this chapter I understand and I'll post a little summary at the end. 
> 
> Skip the second section, and nothing else will talk about rape after that!
> 
> LOVE YOU KEEP YOURSELF SAFE

Jimin never thought his life would become this. 

Sixteen years old and here he was, cowering the corner of an abandoned building hoping that whoever was coming to "shop" today wasn't going to pick him.

He's learned pretty quickly that shoppers weren't very nice people. 

And that you didn't want to be sold. 

Jimin refused to look up and see who was walking around. There were two of them today, that much he knew. One of them was doing all the talking to his current 'owner', a man probably in his forties or fifties. The other shopper hadn't spoken yet and they hadn't gotten close enough to Jimin for him to know anything about them.

The footsteps passed in front of him, just out of his line of sight. 

They stopped. 

"This one."

Jimin was shocked to hear the voice of a child. 

His head shot up in alarm, wide brown eyes widening even more as he stared at the gangly boy in front of him. 

The boy had a critical eye trained on him that made Jimin both want to cower and stand up. There was no way this little thing was older than him, no way. 

"A child, Taehyung? You're joking?"

"He can grow with me." Taehyung addressed the man next to him without looking away from Jimin. "I can train him to be whatever I desire."

The man gazed at Jimin with the same critical look in his eye, before he smirked and nodded. "Not a bad idea at all, my little genius."

Taehyung didn't smile at Jimin at all as he was sold to him. 

Jimin didn't look Taehyung in the eyes. 

No, it wasn't until much later that night, almost 1 in morning when Taehyung and Jimin actually got acquainted with each other. 

"My name is Taehyung," the smaller boy introduced in a whisper to Jimin. He was crouched down in front of him on the bed in the room Jimin had been told was his. "I hear you're called Jimin."

Jimin had been trying and failing to sleep. Now he stared with wide eyes at Taehyung in fear.

"I'm sorry that you're scared. Father said I needed to choose my slave. All my brothers had to do it too. It's okay, though, I'm not that cruel, yet."

"Yet?"

"It's inevitable, really, for me to end up just like them." Taehyung sat back on his heels and grinned widely at Jimin. 

"But why?" Jimin gradually felt himself relax in Taehyung's presence. It didn't seem like he was going to be hurt.

"You can only be on the wrong of my father's gun barrel so many times with firing back."

Jimin's eyes widened again. 

"It's okay. He's only killed two of my brothers."

Jimin sucked in a breath and moved forward to throw his arms around Taehyung's neck. 

"Father's shouldn't kill their children!" Jimin whispered harshly, clutching onto the other boy. 

"Yours left you. Why should mine be any worse than him?"

Jimin didn't exactly know what to say to that. 

"And anyway, if I die, then I probably deserved it."

"No! You have to stay with me now! You own me remember?"

Taehyung looked at Jimin oddly as the other pulled back and stared at Taehyung with frantic eyes.

"For someone who just got told he's a slave, you sure have strange priorities."

"I can be happy anywhere. My mother always said I had to before she died."

"I hope, for your sake, that she's right, Jimin-ah."

* * *

A mere three years later and there was little that could separate Jimin and Taehyung. The two of them had become fast friends, both of them choosing to ignore the fact that, technically, Jimin was Taehyung's property. 

It was easier to let it slip under the rug than to constantly think about the fact that they weren't allowed to be friends. 

Jimin was the first person to ever really love Taehyung. 

Taehyung was the first person to ever really treasure Jimin. 

They had a beautifully pure friendship that was tolerated well into Taehyung's late teens. 

Then Taehyung turned 18. 

His father declared to him that he was a full grown adult and he needed to get ready to work under him soon enough. 

Taehyung agreed willingly. 

The problem: Jimin. 

His father wanted him to be a mafia leader with a slave, not a soft young man with pet. 

When Taehyung refused to hurt Jimin, and refused even more resolutely to get rid of him, his father took matters into his own hands. 

Jimin was 19. 

He screamed and cried for hours. 

Taehyung was only allowed to listen. 

He started treating Jimin distantly after that. 

The whole thing fucked with Jimin's head. He would purposely make Taehyung mad to get his attention, to make sure that Taehyung still saw him. 

Jimin started slipping into every bed that would have him, hoping that Taehyung would have enough and make him stay in his own again. 

Taehyung never did. He was too afraid.

* * *

Everything came to the horrible awful place it is now when Taehyung's dad finally crossed the last line.

Taehyung came into the apartment he had shared with Jimin since he was 19 and found his father in the living room.

Jimin was chained, naked, bruised and broken, on the floor in front of him. 

_Treat him like a slave and I won't kill him._

Taehyung had just stared at Jimin in horror. 

_Treat him like your slave and I'll shoot him!_

Taehyung didn't know what else to do. 

He was young, unarmed, and so so terrified of losing Jimin. 

He had thought it was better. 

Jimin didn't fight him. He didn't even cry. 

He let Taehyung hurt him. 

The two of them were never the same after that.

In a way, his love for Jimin was the only thing keeping Taehyung from becoming entirely consumed by the inky darkness that flowed through his family. 

Once it was tainted, there was no going back. 

Taehyung was worse than his father. 

Taehyung wasn't just cruel. He was broken. He used to have love. Pure, unadulterated love. And then it was taken from him, twisted and used against him. 

Those are always the worst kind of villian. 

Jimin pushed every boundary Taehyung had. 

He'd had everything he'd ever loved torn away from him in the most brutal, violent way possible. His own humanity, his own dignity was stolen from him in the very same bed where he'd learned how to love something years before. 

He hated Taehyung too much to stay with him and loved him too much to run from him. 

Taehyung made Jimin the most powerful, wealthiest whore in the country. 

Right after he took his revenge on his father. 

But Jimin never knew about that. 

* * *

"Are you sure about this? He'll be very angry once he finds out..."

"Someone has to stop him. Someone...someone has to bring him back from the hell he's built himself in."

Ravi nodded. 

Jimin let them cover his head in the hood. 

The last thing he saw was Yoongi watching him worriedly from the mouth of the alley, standing next to N. 

Jimin didn't know what happened next, all he knew was this was sure to get Taehyung's attention. 

Taehyung needed to fall now. 

He needed to come back to earth. 

Of that, Jimin was certain. 

After Jungkook, Jimin didn't think there was any other way. 

This was for Taehyung's betterment. 

Wasn't it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yoongi and Jimin helped staged the photograph delivered by N to the Magic Shop. Jimin is trying to help N take Taehyung down because he's afraid of what will happen to Taehyung's humanity if he doesn't.


	12. XI

Namjoon finally got the courage to go into Jungkook's room.

Jin had been trying to talk him into it for few weeks now, but he hadn't been able to make himself do it until now.

When he opened the door to the bedroom, it looked just like it always did. 

Of course it did. 

No one had been in here since...well...the incident. 

Namjoon tried not think about it. 

Today he's going to have to. 

It smells like dust. 

He tries to focus on that and not the underlying smell of Jungkook. The smell of him still lived in the air. Boyish cologne, and definitely too much sports.

Namjoon put down the boxes that he was going to be sorting Jungkook's stuff in and walked over to the desk.

If he didn't know any better he would think it was the desk of any regular teenage boy. 

Pictures of the two of them, some featuring Jimin and Taehyung were in stands on the desk. 

He opened the top drawer. 

The contents shocked him. 

Letters.

Pictures. 

All of them of him and Taehyung. 

Sweet beautiful pictures that made Namjoon's eyes widen. 

He picked them up, one after the other and studied his brother in this new light. 

He looked so happy. 

So young and innocent and carefree. 

Here with Taehyung's arm around his shoulders, pressing a kiss to his forehead. 

Here with Taehyung's head resting on his shoulder, laughing up at Jungkook who grinned with a wrinkled nose at the camera.

And there's another one. Taken by a third party, probably Jimin. 

The two are laying on Taehyung's floor, laughing. Neither of them seem to realize the photo is being taken.

In the one taped to it, they're kissing.

Namjoon's hand comes up to cover his mouth. 

A whole side of his brother he never knew, never got to see. 

Why?

He put his hand into the drawer further and his hand brushed a velvet box. 

He pulled it out with shaking hands. 

Taped to the box was a note. 

_My Tae Tae,_

_I know that we'll never get married. _

_I know that it's impossible with you and Jimin and it's all so complicated, I know. _

_So before you start all your protesting thoughts, I want to say this._

_I don't care._

_I want to be yours, forever and always. _

_And I want you to be mine, forever and always. _

_Even if we're the only two who get to know the truth. _

_I know you hate Christmas, so I wanted to make this one a little better for you, so you could see why I love it so much. _

_Because of love, Tae Tae. Love and family and just...yeah. _

_I love you._

_I love you forever and always. _

_With all your lies, all your darkness, all your difficulties._

_I love you all. _

_Merry Christmas, darling. _

_JK _💜

Namjoon watches wet splotches blossom on the paper in his hands. 

He's crying.

He opens the ring box.

It's silver. 

A plain silver heart that swirls on the front of the ring and connects around to form the band. 

A single purple stone rests on one side of the heart. 

Namjoon closes the ring box, hurries out of the room and grabs his coat. 

When he gets to Taehyung and Jimin's apartment no one is there. 

He leaves the ring on the kitchen counter. 

* * *

A day later, after stumbling out into the kitchen hungover and seeking even more alcohol, Taehyung sees the box. 

He reads the note.

He opens the box. 

And for the first time since Jungkook's death, he weeps.


	13. XII

Jin met Hakyeon for lunch a few days later. 

Something was bothering Hakyeon, Jin could tell as soon as he walked in.

Apparently one of Hakyeon's friends, his name was Hongbin, had been AWOL for a few days.

Jin promises to help Hakyeon try to get in contact with this friend. 

As soon as Jin leaves he heads over to Namjoon's apartment to see if he can use any of his connections to help him and Hakyeon. 

Jin doesn't notice Hakyeon following him from a distance to Namjoon's apartment building. 

Hakyeon makes a call as soon as Jin disappoears into Namjoon's apartment. 

"Yeah, boss," Ravi greets him after two rings. 

"Kim Jeon's building is across from the chicken place."

"Got it."

Ravi hangs up. 

Jungkook wasn't being very forthcoming with information on his brother, so N had had to resort to using his only friend to get the job done. 

He felt a little guilty, but he'd make it up to Jin later. 

* * *

"How could you do this to him?!" Jungkook screamed.

"It needs to be done."

"Your breaking him!"

"He needs to be broke, Koo. After what happened to you...he's not the same."

"OF COURSE HE'S NOT THE FUCKING SAME! WHY THE FUCK AM I STILL HERE?"

"It's for the best."

"FUCK YOU, PARK JIMIN."

Jungkook stands looking down at Jimin with blazing hatred in his eyes. "How would you even know what's best? You don't love him."

Jimin sucked in a sharp breath. 

The words stung, no matter how true they were.

"Maybe not," Jimin finally retorted, "but I know him."

"You don't. You never knew him, not really. Just like you never loved him."

Jimin turned hard eyes up to look into Jungkook's pained ones. 

"I won't let him hurt Yoongi."

Jungkook scoffs and turns away from Jimin. "You don't even have any loyalty to him. Get out."

"You're blinded by your feelings for him, Kook. He'd hurt you in a heartbeat, don't forget that."

"He'd never hurt me."

"I used to think the same thing."

"Get out, you fucking whore."

Jimin sighed and left the room that Jungkook was locked up in. 

Ravi stood examining his nails on the wall next to the door. 

"He's a stubborn one."

"He's in love." Jimin looked back at the closed door. "Tae is like that. It's...overwhelming to love him."

"Maybe. But don't discount the theory that Jungkook loves him differently than you did. Remember, Jungkook had a choice." Leo's soft voice startles Jimin, every time.

"I guess," Jimin murmurs.

* * *

Yoongi and Hoseok weren't expecting the ambush. 

"He asked for this," the dark voice mutters in Yoongi's ear as a knife is pressed just a little too hard into his neck. 

"Taehyung?" Hoseok comes into the kitchen of his and Yoongi's apartment, one he was rarely in these days with Jimin living there. 

"You can't stop me this time, hyung," Taehyung growls, pressing harder into Yoongi's throat. 

Yoongi whimpers, his eyes wide with fear. He'd never really seen this cold murderous side of Taehyung. 

"I know he did it on purpose. My own bitch betrayed me. And now he'll be punished for it."

"Taehyung think about this," Hoseok says softly, his hands raised in surrender at Taehyung, "it's not too late."

"Yes it is. It's much too late. Someone tell me where the fuck they took Jungkook." Taehyung smiles cruel and broken, and that's when Hoseok sees the glint of the sliver ring on his finger. 

Yoongi and Hoseok's eyes widen simultaneously. How did Tae figure it out?

Taehyung's body suddenly jolts.

He looks down at the flower of blood blossoming on his chest. 

He collapses on Yoongi. 

Jimin steps out from the doorway. "It won't kill him," he assures Hoseok's frantic babbling, "you should take him to the hospital."

Hoseok doesn't need to be told twice. 

Jimin stays with Yoongi.

"Are you okay, Mini?" Yoongi asks after they've both left. 

"I've been waiting to do that for years."

* * *

Namjoon doesn't hear anyone go into his house that night. 

He only wakes up when the needle slides into his veins, but by then it's already too late to fight. 

He falls back into the darkness of his subconscious. 

He wakes up in the dark, unable to move. 

"Ah, you're awake. So nice to finally meet you," comes a voice from the corner, "my name is Hakyeon, or as you might know me, N."

Namjoon can't find the energy to be surprised. Why is he so damn tired?

"That's the drug. It'll wear off soon enough, don't worry."

"How did you find me?" he asks instead, his words slurred and drunk sounding. 

"That little bit of information is curteousy of a good friend of mine. Kim Seokjin? You know him, yes?" N flicks on a light switch on the corner, allowing Namjoon to see his features finally. 

This face. He'd seen it so many times leaving and coming into Jin's apartment. 

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO SEOKJIN?" Namjoon tugs at the restraints holding him in place despite the black spots that blossom in his vision as he tries to move around. 

"I would never hurt Jin, don't worry. He has no idea about any of this. Really his only folly was falling in love with you."

"Jungkook."

"Yes, that's what we're here to talk about isn't it? I want to cut a deal with you Namjoon-shi."

"No fucking way."

N frowns. "You haven't even heard my terms."

"I won't do it. Not after what you did to Koo." Namjoon started fighting his restraints twice as hard. 

"What if I told you your brother is fine?"

Namjoon froze.

"Well, I mean, he was shot, but he's fine now. I've grown quite fond of him, actually. He's brilliant boy." N smiles fondly as though recalling a good friend instead of an unwilling captive. 

"WHERE IS HE? WHERE IS KOO?" Namjoon demands, bucking against the ties on his wrists and legs. 

"He's upstairs and you can see him if you say yes to my little proposition."

Oh. 

Blackmail, of course.

"And if I say no?"

"Then neither of you are useful to me and you both die."

Namjoon squeezed his eyes closed. 

"What are your terms?"

"I was hoping you would ask that." N smiled in a way that made Namjoon's blood run cold. 

"You have to help me take down Taehyung. You mustn't tell your brother. You have to do whatever I want until Kim Taehyung falls and then, you will see your brother again. If you step out of my lines, my sight, Jungkook dies."

Namjoon sucks in a deep breath. 

"Or I could just kill him now."

"I'll do it. But I want to see him now. I want to prove that he's alive."

"We can arrange that."


	14. XIII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To enhance the experience listen to G-Dragon's Untitled 2014 as you read this chapter.  
The next few ones will have songs connected to them as the story wraps up, so I really hope you listen to the songs with chapters.  
It'll give you a deeper understanding of the characters, their intentions, and what's happening so really the songs are pretty important.  
Here's the link to GD's MV:  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kaCAbIXuyg

Jungkook has no idea that Namjoon knows he's alive. 

Namjoon got to see Jungkook through a video feed that N has attached to the room and that was it. He has to trust that it's not rigged and everything. 

He decides to do it. 

Not like he really has a choice. 

N gives Namjoon a task right away. 

It's a necklace that Namjoon has to deliver to Taehyung. 

He has no idea where the necklace comes from but N assures him that Taehyung will know what it means.

It's one of the first days Taehyung is home from being shot. 

Namjoon shows up late one night and hands the necklace to Tae.

Taehyung takes it from him robotically, as if in shock. 

Namjoon start his story. 

"It came for you at my apartment. There was a note attached and all it said was time's up. I'm not sure what it means, though, do you know?"

Taehyung wraps his hand around the pendant of the necklace and squeezes it until Namjoon hears the glass piece shatter in his hand. 

"Get out," Taehyung growls low. 

"What? Tae, this might have something to do with Koo. We have to figure out what this is!" Namjoon plays his part well. 

"They won, Joon, Koo is dead and so is Jimin. You need to leave. Leave Seoul. I'm going to burn it to the ground."

Taehyung opens his hand and the little glass pieces that didn't get embedded in his hand fall to the ground. 

They make a soft tinkling sound that seems to be at such odds with everything that just happened. 

Namjoon is confused. 

Surely, this hadn't been what N meant to cause. 

Namjoon feels like he has to warn him. 

He calls the burner contact he was given to call when he finished his task. 

"N, I don't know what happened. He said he was going to burn the city to the ground. I don't know what's happening."

N is silent on the other side of the line. 

"Everything is quite fine, Mr. Kim. I assume you delivered our little gift successfully."

"Yes, but Tae is dangerous. I don't know what he's going to do."

"It is for me to know and you to find out soon enough."

N hung up. 

Namjoon stared at the phone in his hand. 

He wandered around the streets after trying and failing to get Taehyung to let him back into his apartment, before he finally gave up and went home. 

Jungkook was waiting for him when he got there. 

All thoughts and worries flew out of his head when he saw him.

His little bun.

Jungkook whirled around when he heard Namjoon's steps on hard wood floor. 

They stared at each other in silent awe for several seconds. 

"Hyung," Jungkook choked out, a sob welling in his throat before he could stop it. 

"Koo," Namjoon breathed out with a sigh, his voice breaking as he spoke.

There are no words to describe the kind of crying that happened between the two of them. 

There were no real words that came out of their mouths, but then, there really isn't anything to say when someone comes back from the dead, is there?

Finally, Namjoon found his little piece of absolution. 

"We shouldn't do this anymore, hyung. I'm terrified of it," Jungkook whispered later, when the two were curled on Namjoon's bed. His eyes were wide and glassy.

Namjoon wasn't prepared to let his little brother out of his sight ever again. 

"Okay, Koo. I'll...yeah. We'll figure it out."

"I love you, Joonie hyung."

"I love you, too, bun."

After Jungkook had fallen asleep, Namjoon tried to call Taehyung. 

He didn't answer. 

* * *

"Kim Taehyung?" The soft voice didn't even startle Taehyung. 

"Clever."

"Thank you."

"Is he alive?" Taehyung raised his head from where it'd been resting on his knees for the last few hours. 

Distantly his phone was ringing. 

"Park Jimin?" Leo asked, kneeling in front of him. 

He was shocked to see a wide eyed kid staring back at him.

Kim Taehyung barely looked old enough to carry a gun. 

N hadn't told him his target's age. 

"I can't tell you that," Leo replied to his own question, with a small smile. 

"Fuck," Taehyung muttered, banging his head back into the wall, "he isn't....damnit you were supposed to kill him!"

"Me?"

"Anyone."

Leo tilted his head to the side confused. 

N hadn't told him to kill Park Jimin, in fact, their deal implicitly stated that he was to not kill him. Why was Taehyung of all people saying he should be dead? The two were supposed to be soulmates. Shouldn't he be glad that Jimin is alive?

"Are you here to kill me?" Taehyung asked with a deep sigh, as if he were waiting for this moment for a long time. 

"No."

Taehyung looked at him in shock. "No?"

Leo shook his head with a frown. "No, just to negotiate. Bring you in."

"Shame."

Taehyung stood up and left Leo crouched on the floor staring at him in confusion. 

"You can have Seoul."

"What are you talking about?" Leo demanded, standing and reaching for Taehyung.

The other boy just stared brokenly at Leo and stepped backward out of his reach. 

"You can have Seoul. Tell Jimin that I'm sorry. For all of it. But I never forgot that first promise. I never forget."

"What are you doing?! Kim Taehyung!" Leo shouted, reaching out again. 

"I won't be here to kill him."

But by the time he made it to the window he was too late. 

Taehyung threw his body backward. 

The window shattered. 

He fell. 

Leo watched it as if in slow motion.

Blue hair whipping in the wind. 

Brown eyes closed. 

A soft young face serene and beautiful, as if death wasn't rushing up beneath it at an alarming speed. 

People on the street screamed. 

Leo stumbled away from the window in horror. 

He called N.

"We have a problem."


	15. XIV

It was on the news the next day. 

_Man rushed to hospital after fall from third floor of an apartment building outside of the city. _

Jungkook listened absently to the reports, drawing in a sketchbook at the kitchen table as Namjoon watched the more trashy news in the other room. 

_The man was identified this morning as Kim Taehyung, a well known businessman among the city's elite, Kim is in critical condition at Seoul Hospital._

The pencil in Jungkook's hand snapped. 

His head shot up and he hyper-focused himself on the report. 

_A fall from that height is usually fatal, isn't it?_

_Indeed, Kim is lucky to still be alive. _

_However long it lasts. _

Jungkook jumped out of his chair, knocking it over with a loud crash that broke Namjoon out of the reverie he had been in. Namjoon jumped up and grabbed his coat and followed Jungkook out the front door, barely remembering to grab his own coat as he shoved Jungkook's onto the younger before the other could fully take off.

"Koo, I have to call a cab!" Namjoon called after his brother, who looked about ready to run off into the morning even though they lived much too far from the hospital to consider that in the freezing temperature. 

"I can't wait for a fucking cab!" Jungkook huffed, his breathing frantic.

Namjoon's heart nearly broke when he saw Jungkook's wide frantic eyes. 

His phone pinged. 

"The cab will be here in 5 minutes, Koo. Just wait, it's gonna be okay," Namjoon tried to soothe, reaching out and running a gentle hand through Jungkook's hair.

"Okay?! OKAY?! HE'S DYING. TAE IS DYING, HYUNG," Jungkook's babbling turned into hushed, crackling into broken pleas for what, Namjoon wasn't sure, "I didn't give him his Christmas present. I didn't tell him I'm alive, HYUNG, HE THINKS I'M DEAD."

Jungkook collapsed against his brother, who wrapped his arms around him securely and held on as Jungkook started shaking and sobbing. 

"I know, Koo, I know."

Finally, the cab arrived.

Namjoon got in first, and pulled Jungkook in with him, the younger automatically curling into his brother, sobbing once more. 

The cabbie looked at them in concern but Namjoon just gave him the address and pleaded with him to hurry. 

It was the fastest cab ride Namjoon had ever had, and if he weren't so preoccupied with the crying Koo he might've been more concerned for their safety.

When they reached the hospital, Jungkook hurried to the front desk and asked about Taehyung, still sniffing, but relatively calm. 

"I'm sorry but you have to be immediate family to see him."

"I'm his husband, Jeon Jungkook, I should be on there."

Namjoon gave shocked start when Jungkook didn't even hesitate with the lie. 

"Ah, yes, Mr. Jeon, your friend will have to stay out here, though."

"Brother, but okay." Jungkook followed the nurse, turning to wave Namjoon back. "I'll be back, hyung, I just have to see him for now."

Namjoon nodded robotically. 

Since when was his little brother married?

Legally, at least.

What was with the ring still in the drawer then? 

He thought the note said something about not being able to get a married at all...

Namjoon was very confused. 

Just then, Yoongi, Jimin, Hoseok and Jin came skidding into the waiting Namjoon was sitting in. 

"Where is he?! Where is TaeTae?!" Jimin was asking, breathless and frantic, as if Namjoon had answers. 

"They're not letting anyone but family back to see him," Namjoon muttered, still slumped in his seat with a creased brow. 

"Fuck, I'm not registered as his family," Jimin cursed, stomping the ground and digging his hands in his hair. "I told him he should just register as his brother or his husband or some shit."

"He can't fuck his brother," Hoseok pointed out, falling into a seat beside Namjoon. 

"And the title of husband is, apparently, already taken," Namjoon muttered darkly. 

Jimin stared at him in shock. Then his face contorted in some sort of anger and sadness. 

"Fucking Jungkook, isn't it?" Jimin growled, sighing angrily. 

"Apparently," Namjoon muttered. 

"When did that happen?" Jin asked, sitting in the seat next to Namjoon and rubbed the younger's back soothingly. Namjoon rested his head on Jin's shoulder. 

"I don't fucking know," Namjoon said throught gritted teeth, "but Taehyung is fucking lucky he's already dying."

"I told him that was a stupid move. I guess, he didn't listen to me. Cocky bastard never thought he'd get hurt enough for Kook to need to use it." Jimin paced in front of the seat they were taking up until Yoongi sat down and pulled Jimin by the wrist to sit in his lap. 

Jungkook came out of the back hallway, into the waiting room then, surprised to find them all there. 

"Hyungs, what are you all doing here?" he asked.

"You really think I would just see that my soulmate is dying and not show up?" Jimin snapped, he stood up from his spot on Yoongi's lap.

"Well you're the one that shot him, so who knows what kind of heart you still have left," Jungkook spits venomously at Jimin. 

"I told you, it was for his own good," Jimin growls in return, "I did it because I care about him."

"Oh yeah?! Is this what you had in mind, Park Jimin?! Is this what you wanted?! Because he's probably not waking up again! If he does, do you know the chances that he'll be able to function again?! Practically nothing! Is this what you wanted?!" Jungkook shouted at Jimin, getting right in the older's face. 

Jimin was afraid of Jungkook for the first time in his life then. 

Jungkook towered over Jimin, his eyes red-rimmed and broken as he stared with all amount of hatred he could manage into Jimin's eyes. 

"This wasn't supposed to happen," Jimin whimpered brokenly, as Namjoon, and Hoseok pulled Jungkook back from him.

Jin stepped in between the two of them.

Yoongi wrapped his arms around Jimin and tucked the shuddering boy against his chest. 

"This wasn't supposed to happen. They weren't supposed to hurt him," Jimin whined pitifully.

Jungkook scoffed. "If you believed them then you're dumber than Tae ever gave you credit for."

"Actually, it was not I that did this." 

Leo stood at the door of the waiting room, with N, Ravi and Hongbin behind him. 

"I tried to stop him."

"YOU," Jungkook growled, lunging out of Namjoon and Hoseok's grasp at Leo.

He grabbed the other and pinned him with an arm over his throat to the wall. 

N had a knife at his throat before Jungkook could even blink. 

"Touch my brother and I will actually kill you, Jeon Jungkook," he said lowly, pressing the blade in enough that Jungkook could feel it bobbing when he swallowed. 

"YAH, CHA HAKYEON," Jin screeched in shock, "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?"

"That's your friend Hakyeon?!" Namjoon demanded, as he struggled to tug Jungkook away from Leo. 

Jungkook looked back at Jin in confusion. "You know them?" he asked him.

"I've known Hakyeon since I was a child. Or at least, I thought I did." Jin glared at N and marched over to stand in front of his friend. "Is this what you've been doing with your life?! I thought you were better than that, Hakyeon-ah."

"Oooo the Jin look of disappointment," Ravi teased from the corner, where he was leaning casually, "you better let the kid go, boss."

Jin glared at Ravi over N's shoulder before turning back to his friend and crossing his arms. 

"I really did want to save your lover, Jungkook. Hurting him was never my intention. And I didn't expect him to jump," Leo murmured softly, his voice tinged with an uncharacteristic bit of sadness. 

"Lover?!" N shrieked in alarm.

"Husband," Jungkook corrected with a growl, letting Leo go, but only with a harsh shove. 

"HUSBAND?!" Jin screeched in equal alarm. 

"You two are definitely friends," Yoongi muttered with a wince, rubbing his ears.

Jin and N turned identical glares on him.

Yoongi raised his hands in surrender and ducked behind Hoseok. 

"Yes," Jungkook replied to both of them without looking at anyone, "my husband, who is lying unconscious in the ICU because he _jumped out of a window_ for god knows what reason."

"That, I believe his other lover can tell us," Leo murmured, moving over to Jimin. "He told me to tell you that he's sorry, for 'all of it' and that he remembered your promise. He said he 'never forgets'."

Jimin paled. His legs gave out beneath him and he hit the floor.

Yoongi moved to quickly kneel beside the other. 

"Jimin what's wrong? What happened?"

"My necklace," Jimin whispered. He looked up at N. "You took it. I thought I lost it, but you took it."

N nodded. "Yes. But I only gave it to Taehyung. And illusion of your death."

"No. NO!" Jimin screamed, he surged up and grabbed N by the shirt collar. "Do you know what you've done?!"

N's eyes were wide. 

No one had ever seen Park Jimin angry. 

Certainly not angry and this desperate. 

Jimin shook N violently. "THIS IS YOUR FAULT!"

"What Jimin? Stop, come on, just tell us," Yoongi pleaded with his love, pulling at Jimin's arms that held N suspended in the air now. 

Jimin dropped N suddenly, like he'd been burned. 

"It means war."


	16. XV

_The First Promise_

Jimin was 20 and Taehyung was 19.

Taehyung's father came into their apartment, without warning, to find the two of them cuddled together on the couch watching some cheesy move Jimin told Tae they were going to watch. 

Taehyung wasn't going to admit that he had teared up at bit. 

"You shouldn't treat him so nicely," Taehyung's father grumbled, eyeing Jimin in disdain. 

Taehyung didn't say anything. He stood up and disentangled himself from Jimin, who pouted, and made to follow his father into the office. 

"I mean it, Taehyung, you know the conditions of the contract. It's not good for you to get attached to him." His father stood there waiting for Taehyung to acknowledge his command. 

"I know," Tae muttered in return. 

"Do you? Because there are some who think that he is your weakness. Do you know how embarrassing it is for lesser men than us to talk about my own son being weak for his whore? Do you know the humiliation it could cause, Kim Taehyung?"

"I won't be seen with Jimin, anymore, then."

His father's eyes flashed in anger. Nothing made him more violent than being dismissed, underestimated and underrated. 

"Perhaps you need to remember who is in charge here."

Taehyung saw his father move toward Jimin, but Taehyung darted over to stand in front of the other before his father could get there. 

Jimin cowered into the corner of the couch. 

"Stop protecting him! He is nothing! He is less than nothing!" His father shoved Taehyung out of the way and grabbed Jimin by his hair, dragging him off the couch and throwing him against the floor. 

Taehyung reached for Jimin automatically, his eyes wide. 

He didn't get very far before he was being yanked back into a standing position by his shirt collar and a large hand smacked across his face hard enough that Taehyung knew it would bruise. 

"DO NOT KNEEL FOR HIM!" His father screamed. 

Jimin whimpered on the floor and curled into a little ball, squeezing his eyes shut. 

"HIS IS YOUR WHORE! YOU DO NOT KNEEL FOR HIM!"ㅁㅇ트

Taehyung cowered away from his father, everything in his body screaming at him to go to Jimin.

"Hurt him."

Taehyung's wide eyes looked up at his father. 

"Hurt. Him."

Jimin whimpered again, eyes bursting open to stare up at Taehyung pleadingly. 

"Hurt him or I will, Kim Taehyung."

"NO!" Taehyung screamed, throwing his body over Jimin and holding on to the smaller man with a death grip. "No, he hasn't done anything wrong, no, don't hurt him, please." 

But his father just grabbed the back of his shirt and threw him away from Jimin, into the shelf that had Jimin's collection of little glass figures. They rained down around Taehyung when the shelf lurched from the impact of his body. 

The little twinkling sounds of the glass falling and shatter wasn't enough.

It wasn't enough to make Taehyung forget what was happening. 

So he closed his eyes. 

Until the crying started. 

It didn't take long, of course, but the one thing Taehyung could never ignore was Jimin's crying.

It was just so wretched, so broken, so hopeless. 

Taehyung shot up from the floor and darted over to his father. 

He grabbed his father's arm and pulled him back, using as much of his strength as he could but the only thing that did was transfer the anger over to him. 

At least it wasn't Jimin. 

Taehyung learned not to cry before he was even old enough to talk properly. 

After it all, after Taehyung's father had left and the two had tended to the other's wounds with whispered apologies and stray tears, they lay together, snuggled down into a fort of blankets as if that could hide the outside world from the two of them. 

"I'm sorry, Chim," Taehyung murmured against the other's forehead. 

"It's not your fault, Taetae," Jimin whispered back. His hands clutched at Taehyung's shirt with white knuckles as if letting go would kill him. 

"It's always my fault."

"You're not your father."

"But I will be."

Jimin frowned but didn't reply. He pressed a gentle kiss to Taehyung's lips and soon after, was asleep.

"No matter what," Taehyung murmured, "I will never end your life, my love." He stroked Jimin's hair gently and buried his nose in the other's hair. 

He too managed to sleep. 

* * *

* * *


	17. XVI

_The Second Promise_

Taehyung wasn't coming home tonight. 

Some last minute business trip he'd said. 

Jimin knew that was a lie. 

Taehyung was going to stay with Jungkook again.

It was stupid that Taehyung lied, as if he were a husband cheating on his wife. They weren't married. 

Taehyung owned him, that was all. 

Jimin was surprised to see a velvet box in the center of his bed when he got home that night. 

A consolation prize. 

I'm sorry your the whore. 

He tossed it away without a second thought. 

Jimin flopped onto his bed and closed his eyes with a deep sigh. 

Opening a new club was exhausting at best. 

Today had not been the best. 

It was fine though. He had the whole apartment to himself and some new piece of pretty jewelry in a box on his floor. 

He sat up and reached for the box without moving from his splayed out position, his hands patting over the floor without looking. His hand brushed the box and he grabbed it and sat up to open it. 

The note inside took him by surprise even more by surprise. 

_My darling,_

_I'm sorry. _

_I want you to take this necklace and wear it always._

_With it, I'm giving you control over this. Over us. _

_Take it off, and it will all be over._

_Take it off, and the end will begin. _

_If I ever push you too far, if I hurt you too much, take it off and everything will stop._

_I do love you, despite it all. _

_I hope you will forgive me, one day. _

_Your Tae_

What a lovely way to give someone their own noose. 

Jimin knew that if this love affair ever came to an end, if Jimin ever really did leave Tae, he would have to die. He knew too much. He was a liability. Jimin was well aware of what leaving would mean for him. Jimin also knew that Taehyung would expect him to fight. 

The necklace would be a declaration of war. 

Jimin put the necklace on. 

He would never take it off, of that he was certain. 

He didn't want to go to war with Taehyung. 

It would only end with one or both of them dead. 

If Taehyung was serious about the promise he'd made when they were younger, about never ending his life, then it would most certainly be Taehyung. 

Jimin didn't want that. 

He loved Taehyung too, despite it all. 

They were still soulmates, even if they were broken soulmates. 


	18. XVII

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To enhance the angst experience, listen to Lose You to Love Me by Selena Gomez while you read.
> 
> Here we reach the end of the Vmin storyline.

Taehyung didn't wake up.

Eventually, they cut off the life support and he died, ultimately, peacefully. 

Jimin didn't go to the funeral. 

He was sure that Namjoon and Jungkook did a wonderful job with the ceremony and all that, but he just couldn't bring himself to go. 

This was his fault. 

Entirely, his fault. 

If only he hadn't fallen for Yoongi. 

If only he had been complacent with Taehyung. 

If only. 

Jimin could drive himself crazy thinking of all the 'if only's.

He never saw Jungkook or Namjoon anymore, unless they were at Magic Shop.

Hoseok refused to talk to him.

Yoongi did his best to reconcile his best friend and his lover, but Hoseok didn't want to reconcile with Jimin. 

Hoseok couldn't believe Jimin had been so stupid as to lose such an important necklace and not question it. 

Jimin couldn't believe he'd been so stupid. 

Yoongi tried to remind them both everyday that Jimin wasn't to blame for the lying and stealing of trained criminals.

Jimin and Hoseok liked to remind Yoongi that Jimin _was_ a trained criminal and he should've known better. 

But here's the thing. 

Jimin wasn't destroyed over Taehyung's death. 

It was sad. 

He had lost the only love he'd known for the first 22 years of his life. 

He lost his soulmate, and if you had asked him mere years ago if he thought he could live on an earth without Taehyung, he would've said no. 

But, in the end, his life continued to move forward.

And it was only weeks, just before two months had passed since Taehyung's death, Jimin was finding himself happy. Truly, honestly happy for the first time in his life. 

It was different. 

That's what took the most adjusting for him. 

No losing Taehyung. 

Being happy. 

Realizing that life is a beautiful wonderful thing and so is he. 

See, before, he had been nothing but a toy. A slave. Bought with a dollar figure that weighted how much he was worth, both dead and alive. Jimin lived in constant fear that one day, Taehyung would decide he was worth more dead. 

He didn't know that Taehyung never would've decided that. 

All he knew is that he was beaten, mocked, pushed aside, punished, and abused for so damn long and he was finally free. 

Finally. 

Free to love Yoongi. 

Free to love himself. 

Did he deserve it?

Maybe. Maybe not.

But he did it anyway. 

Because he was alive, finally. 

Finally. 


	19. XVIII

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To enhance the experience listen to This This by Troye Sivan while you read. 
> 
> Finally!  
It's Taekook time.

Jungkook wasn't really sure why he was nervous. 

This wasn't a big deal. 

Well...getting married is kind of a big deal. 

Especially when you have to keep it a secret from like, every single person you know. 

God, how was he supposed to hide THIS from Namjoon. 

He's going to push that aside for now, and cross that bridge if he come to it. 

Which he really hopes he doesn't. 

Namjoon thinks he's working out of country on something. He had been, but he'd extended his trip a little. 

He doesn't want to keep this from Namjoon, but he has to. 

For Taehyung's sake.

He stands in front of the judge, waiting. 

Hoseok is sitting in one of the court room seats, grinning at Jungkook, looking a little misty-eyed. 

Jungkook's friend Sanghyuk sat next to him, making stupid faces at him. 

Jungkook flipped him off. Sanghyuk just laughed and winked before Hoseok elbowed him in the side. 

"The other groom is coming, isn't he?" the judge asked, raising his eyebrows at Jungkook. 

Jungkook gives him a small smile and shrugs. "He likes to be fashionably late."

Just then, one of the doors opened and Tae stuck his head in, winded and flushed. 

"You're late," Jungkook notes as Taehyung slips inside and hurries up to the alter, "for your own wedding."

"A queen is never late, everyone else is simply early," Taehyung retorts, sticking his tongue out at Jungkook. 

"For your own _wedding." _

Taehyung gives his a wild grin and then the ceremony begins. 

It's awkward as hell.

The room is silent save for the judge droning on through the little speech thing. 

Jungkook is pretty sure he can hear Hyuk whispering something obscene to Hoseok, who's choking on his laughter. 

Taehyung is looking equally uncomfortable as he is, being the center of attention, which kind of surprises Jungkook. 

If there's one thing he knows about Tae, it's that he _always_ likes to be the center of attention. 

But it's just so damn _weird_. 

They're so young. 

The people they love most in the world aren't here. 

But it's all fine, he supposes. 

They're still getting married, which wasn't legal as of a few years ago, so beggars can't be choosers. 

Then comes the vows. 

And you know what Jungkook was not expecting. 

He was not expecting Tae to have WRITTEN his vows. 

Because Jungkook most certainly did not.

And now, he kinda feels like a loser. 

It's fine. 

"Jeon Jungkook, if there's one thing that I never thought I'd say to anyone, it's 'I love you'. I never believed in love. I believed in want, in need, in affection, and maybe even caring for someone, but never love. So when you came into my life with a heart full of real love, for everything around you, I was shocked. That kind of unconditional acceptance wasn't something I'd ever received, so at first, I didn't even know what it was. I didn't know it was possible for one person to care so much about someone else that they would risk everything for them. But you've shown me, over and over again, that love like that is real. It exists and I'm so lucky that I get to say that you love me. I can't promise that I'll love you for the rest of our lives. I just don't know how. But I can promise to try. To learn from you, and look to you as my example, and to use what I learn to show you how much I care about you. I promise to believe in the love you have for me, and to care for you in every way I know how until I physically cannot anymore, through everything that life throws at us, every good time and every bad that might come our way."

And fuck if Jungkook wasn't crying now. 

Hoseok was crying too. 

Hyuk would deny it to the ends of the earth and back but he was also tearing up a bit. 

The judge turned to Jungkook. 

"And now for yours," he said. 

Jungkook panicked a little bit. 

"Uh," he started with a sheepish smile and a sniffle, "I wasn't like prepared for this so just gimme a second to think or something." 

Taehyung chuckled and squeezed Jungkook's hands. 

"Okay, okay, so, Taehyung," Jungkook restarted, his voice shaking still from crying, "I don't even know what to say. When you asked me to marry you like yesterday, it took me a full ten minutes to figure out that, 1, you were serious and 2, there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to. I know you don't ever believe me when I say this, but from the first moment I saw you, I fell in love a little bit. You were, and are, the most beautiful man I've ever seen. Don't tell Jin hyung I said that. He'll never give me free food again."

Taehyung snorted.

Jungkook grinned and continued. "I wanted you from that first moment, and I just knew that I had to have you. As I got to you know, I started to see a million things that made me fall so deeply in love with you. Your weird as fuck sense of humor, your lovely boxy smile, all of the random smart ass stuff you keep stored in your head, the things you randomly tell me when we're not doing anything, even if it's 1000% inappropriate timing...."

Taehyung grinned at Jungkook and winked. 

They heard Hoseok choke. 

Jungkook rolled his eyes. "The softness of your heart, the sharpness of your mind, and the power you bring to every room you step into. I promise to protect all of those things that make you shine so bright to me, to love all of you, no matter how dark, and to care for you for as long as we both live."

Taehyung smiled at him gently. He raised one hand up and brushed tears that Jungkook hadn't realized had started falling again from his face.

Jungkook leaned into the touch and smiled back at Taehyung. Hoseok and Hyuk stood up and gave the rings the two of them had bought for each other to the judge. Both of them were plain silver bands, bought in haste the day before. 

"Repeat after me," the judge instructed, "I give you this ring, as a daily reminder of my love for you."

Taehyung and Jungkook parroted the sentence, sliding the rings onto each other's fingers.

"By the power of love and commitment, and by the power invested in me, I now pronounce you married. You may kiss your groom."

It wasn't like the movies. There was no sweeping moments or singing choirs. 

But Taehyung did grin as he pulled Jungkook in by his shirt collar and kissed him loudly, albeit chastely. 

"GROSS," Hyuk yelled. 

Hoseok shushed him loudly.

Then the ceremony was over and it was anti-climatic to say the least. They signed some paperwork and then Hoseok and Hyuk bought them dinner, story over. 

The most exciting part of their wedding was definitely the night after. Taehyung hardly let Jungkook out of his arm's reach for the next day or so, even though they were actually supposed to be working. 

Jungkook doesn't think he's ever spent so much time in his life naked. 

Taehyung is pretty sure that means he should spend more of his time naked then, but he would like to acknowledge that he is, in fact, biased on the matter. 

For both of them, it was a much needed break from the reality of their situation. When they went back home, it would be all sneaking around, pretending that they weren't in love, and walking on eggshells.

Jungkook didn't really understand why they did it. Jimin knew. They both knew he did. 

Taehyung still claimed it was so they wouldn't hurt him. 

It was something they argued about more often then not. 

But for now, the only things that touched their little bubble was happiness, laughter, love, and desire. 

It was blissful. 

It was perfection.

It was destined to end far too soon. 

And Jungkook still couldn't believe it. 

The first ceremony he had for Tae in a church was a funeral. 

Jimin didn't show up. 

Jungkook hated him all the more for it. 

Hoseok say in the back, and didn't cry. 

Hyuk wasn't there. 

Jungkook couldn't stop crying long enough to hear what was said. 

Namjoon didn't know how to comfort him. 

Of course, there is no way to comfort those who lost something they never truly had. There's nothing to say about losing something that wasn't really yours to begin with. There's no way to console the loss of a love that you never got to live in the first place. 

It's all just tragedy. 

This is Jungkook's tragedy. 


	20. XIX

Jungkook didn't feel much in the days following Taehyung's death. 

Namjoon tried to talk to him multiple times but he just couldn't put what he was and wasn't feeling into words. 

It was like the most crippling, angry emptiness a person could ever withstand. 

He hated everything, but all he wanted to do was cry, and for some reason, he just couldn't. It was a horrible place to be in. 

Jimin had the audacity to send flowers. 

Jungkook saw the bundle sitting on the counter one morning when he wandered down after not sleeping, for some food. 

"Who are these from?" he asked.

"Jimin sent them over with me," Jin said. He was sitting at their kitchen island eating an omelet while Namjoon made coffee. 

Jungkook froze with his head in the refrigerator. 

Jin looked at him in concern. "You okay, Koo?" he asked. 

Namjoon glanced over at where his brother stood barely breathing.

Jungkook stood up and grabbed the flowers off the counter in a tight fist. 

"Jungkook," Namjoon murmured gently, putting a gentle hand on Jungkook's shoulder. 

"Burn them," Jungkook growls, dropping the flowers on the floor and stepping on them as he walked out of the kitchen and back to his room. 

Jin gave Namjoon a look.

Kook sat at his desk staring at a picture of him and Taehyung when Jin knocked on the door. 

"I brought you toast," Jin said as he entered, not waiting for an invitation, "you need food."

"I'm not hungry."

"You are always hungry."

"Well, apparently your husband's death can really kill your appetite," Jungkook snaps. 

"You think I don't understand what you're feeling right now, but I do."

Jungkook gives Jin a doubtful look.

"Okay, maybe I don't understand exactly. But I watched my mother do the exact same thing when my father died. Back then, I didn't know how to handle it and she really did some damage to herself. I won't make the same mistake with you, Kook." Jin sat down on the edge of Jungkook's bed and set a plate of toast on the desk next to him. "I can't imagine what it feels like, Koo. And I'm so sorry. But you have to live."

"That's the thing, hyung," Jungkook says with a sigh, letting his head drop into his hands, "I don't want to. I don't. I just want to be angry and sad and I can't even manage to do that properly." Jungkook feels tears fill his eyes. He presses his palms against them. "I don't want to wake up in a world where I never get to have him. I don't want to look into the sky and know that he'll never get to see it again. I don't want to breathe knowing that the person responsible for this is still breathing somewhere too. I really just don't."

"You know Jimin isn't to blame for this." Jin stroked Jungkook's hair gently. 

"You don't understand. It was a promise. The necklace was Jimin's way of signifying the end of his and Taehyung's relationship. A relationship that could only end in one of their deaths. I don't understand it either, but Taehyung always told me that if Jimin ever gave him the necklace, then he would kill himself. I don't understand it and I only know because Taehyung told me when he was drunk, but it meant a lot to them. And that's the reason Taehyung is gone. Jimin wasn't careful enough. With something that meant Tae's _life_. He didn't even _care_. He didn't show up to the funeral." Jungkook grew angrier with each word he spoke until Jin could hear raw hatred filtering through unchecked. "If I ever see Park Jimin again I'll end him."

Jin didn't know what to say. He didn't know the story behind the necklace, couldn't confirm one way or another, but he did know that a threat from Jungkook was no small matter. It had been months since Namjoon had finally told Jin everything about what he did, what Kook did. Jin had been in shock, and then he'd been angry. Eventually, Namjoon decided to step out of that light and Jin had agreed to try to be with him through it. So Jin was sure it had something to do with the strange relationship Namjoon had described between Jimin and Taehyung, but that didn't really make it any clearer. 

"Jimin feels guilty enough that I think his crimes should be forgiven, Koo. Really. He's been a mess since Tae's death."

"But he's moving on. I've seen him, hyung, he looks pretty fucking fine for someone who just lost their so called soulmate."

"Jungkook, you're allowed to mourn, but this hatred isn't healthy. It'll only destroy you," Jin said exasperated. He was trying everything he could think of to get Jungkook to see that being this angry wasn't going to solve anything. 

"At least if I'm angry, I feel something. Something other than this horrible fear and loneliness and brokenness." Jungkook shrugged Jin's hand off his shoulder. "Thanks for the toast. Please get out."

"Bun," Jin murmured softly, reaching for Jungkook again. 

"Don't. Please just...go spend time with Joon." Jungkook turned away from Jin and that was then end. Jin knew he wouldn't be getting anything else out of Jungkook. 

Jungkook barely heard him close the door behind him, but he was already lost back in his thoughts. 

* * *

"Koo. Kookie. Bunbun," Taehyung cooed softly. 

"Mmm," Jungkook groaned, rolling over and pulling Tae into his arms in one motion.

Taehyung giggled and let himself be cuddled into Jungkook's warm embrace. 

"I made breakfast," Taehyung murmured, snuggling his face into Jungkook's bare chest and inhaling the sent of the other and the smell of sex that still clung to the blankets. 

"A few more minutes," Jungkook muttered, pressing a kiss to the crown of Taehyung's head without opening his eyes. 

"It'll get cold," Taehyung pouted. 

"We'll reheat it." 

"Aw, come on, Kookie," Taehyung whined. 

"Five minutes."

Taehyung didn't say anything more which, if Jungkook were more awake, would've caused the greatest suspicion. 

As it were, Jungkook was very much half asleep and didn't think anything of his lover's silence until he heard the false shutter of a phone camera go off. 

"Shit," Taehyung muttered, dropping his phone onto the bed between Jungkook and Taehyung in his hurried effort to turn the sound off. 

"Why?" Jungkook sighed deeply, finally cracking one eye open and glaring at Tae.

"You're just too cute in the morning," Taehyung muttered, raising his phone with a grin and capturing a picture of disgruntled Jungkook. 

"Wonderful, please stop."

"No."

"Taehyung." Jungkook reached for the other's phone.

"Not until you get up and eat breakfast with me."

Jungkook groaned. "Tae, please."

Taehyung scooted closer to Jungkook and raised the camera above them, now on selfie mode. 

"Say kimchi," Taehyung said brightly, grinning at the camera as Jungkook raised a single eyebrow and didn't look away from Taehyung's face. 

Taehyung laughed and turned his face to press a kiss to Jungkook's pouted lips as he took the next picture. 

The gesture made Jungkook finally crack and he smiled against Taehyung's lips with a small exasperated breath. 

"Fine, we'll get up. Just stop taking pictures like this. I can't risk having someone discover how whipped I am."

"Oh, darling, everyone already knows," Taehyung cackles with glee, sitting up and watching Jungkook drag himself up as well. "Even in secret, you aren't subtle."

Jungkook just grins and stretches. 

Taehyung takes another picture of him. 

"Hey! You said you'd stop."

"Can't help it. You're just too gorgeous."

Jungkook grins playfully and gives a little growl as he lunges toward his husband and snatches the phone from his hand. He manages to wrestle Tae back into lying in the bed and snaps a few pictures of the other boy laughing and giggling up at him while he tries to squirm out form under him. 

"Here! How do you like it?!" Jungkook demands, laughing as Taehyung wriggles around fruitlessly.

"You know, you would think that since this is such a big secret you would at least try to be more subtle," a soft voice purrs from the doorway. 

Jungkook and Taehyung freeze and turn toward the door in alarm. 

Jimin stands there with his arms crossed, eyeing the two of them with a raised eyebrow. 

"Hyung," Jungkook mutters, blushing.

"Kook," Jimin acknowledges. He looks down at Taehyung. "We have a meeting for that deal in two hours. I suggest you stop frolicking in bed and actually get your lazy ass up before we have to be there."

"I know what time it is, Minie," Taehyung says, his voice gentle as if afraid of hurting Jimin's feelings.

"Then I suggest you act like it." With that, Jimin leaves, shutting the door a little rougher than necessary behind him.

"Why does he hate this so much? Doesn't he hook up with like everyone?" Jungkook mutters frustrated.

Taehyung sighs. "It's complicated, bun."

"Try me."

Taehyung pushes Jungkook up into a sitting position with a wry smile. "Because I own him, you know? So I can kind of do whatever I want and he's always the side piece. He hates this, us, so much because he always has to come back to me. He belongs to me. And he always will, until the end of his life or mine whichever comes first. But you..." Taehyung smiles a beautiful gentle smile that makes Jungkook's heart pound. "...I chose you, darling. I chose to let you own me instead. You can leave. You get a choice. He doesn't. Never did."

"But you chose him, too."

"I chose to own him. To have power over him. To control him. I chose to give you power and control over me. Something he could never have. I think, there was a time when he thought, and me too, that we would love each other. And we could've. But we learned very quickly that despite ability or compatibility somethings cannot be overcome by love. Like position."

Jungkook takes Taehyung's words in slowly, carefully. He isn't really sure how Taehyung and Jimin's relationship works. Jungkook knows that they sleep together. He knows that they live together. But he doesn't think they love each other. It confuses him to say the least, especially since Taehyung married Jungkook and not Jimin.

He trusts Taehyung, though, and for now, that's enough.

"Now, I really do have to leave soon, so we should eat breakfast and then I have to get ready for work."

"Taehyung, I love you," Jungkook blurts out as Taehyung stand up and stretches again. 

Taehyung stops and looks down at Jungkook, who's still sitting on the bed. He grins, wide and boxy. 

"I love you, too, bun."


	21. XX

Today is the day. 

They have to go through Taehyung's apartment. 

Jungkook isn't prepared. 

He really isn't prepared to hear voices already coming from the kitchen area. 

"I don't think this is a good idea," he hears Namjoon say. 

"He can't hate him forever, Joon," Jin replies.

"Oh, I think he can," a third voice says, "can and will. Deserves too."

"Jimin," Jin scolds. 

Jungkook feels anger fill his body. Namjoon had lied to him. He promised Jimin wouldn't be here at the same time as him.

"What the fuck is he doing here?" Jungkook demanded, striding into the kitchen and glaring daggers at Jimin. 

"Koo," Namjoon responded in a warning tone, "Jimin lived in this apartment. He has more right to be here than you do."

Jungkook raised his eyebrows doubtfully. "If it weren't for him, none of us would have to be here at all."

"This anymore your fault than it is mine," Jimin argued, crossing his arms and staring Jungkook down. 

"Please. I got shot, kidnapped, imprisoned. I did everything I could to get out. You chose to betray him." Jungkook stepped closer to Jimin with balled fists. "And you knew what it would mean."

"I wanted to save him."

"Well now he's fucking dead, so how did that work out for you?"

"Koo, I know this hard for you. I know you're hurting right now, but so is Jimin. Hell, so is everyone in this room. We just have to make peace long enough to get this over with," Jin said in a soothing tone, putting a soft hand on Jungkook's shoulder. 

"No. I don't have to make peace with shit. The man I loved is gone. He's gone because his whore didn't give enough of a fuck about his life to think twice about his actions. I've hated you for a long ass time, Park Jimin, and I'm fucking tired of trying to make nice. With Tae gone, I don't even have a reason to." Jungkook shook Jin's hand off his shoulder. "Go through the damned house without me. I don't need to see anything in it anyway."

Jungkook turned toward the door but was stopped by Jimin's hand on his arm. 

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry, Jungkook," he said. 

"Apologies aren't worth shit if they're too late."

Jungkook walked out of the apartment, and he vowed to never go back in. 

Namjoon called out to him but he didn't turn around. 

Inside, things were tense and silent. 

Jimin could feel Yoongi seething beside him. 

Hoseok had his head in his hands, crying silently and Jin was just standing there, looking down when Namjoon walked in. 

No one really knew what to say. 

"They were married, Jimin," Hoseok speaks up suddenly, "I figure now that...now that's it all over, you should all know the full truth." He stood up and sighed deeply. "Nothing was supposed to happen this way. None of us planned for this. And if everything had just been out from the beginning, none of this would've happened. I'm sorry that I kept it all a secret from all of you, but it had to be this way. Jungkook and Taehyung were sure of it."

Hoseok walked over to one of the cabinets and pulled out a bottle of liquor. He took a long drink and set the bottle down on the counter. 

"Seok-ah?" Yoongi asked hesitantly. In all the years that he'd known Hoseok he'd never seen the younger drink. 

"Yeah. It's a mess." Hoseok sighed again. He trailed through the house, the rest of the boys following him hesitantly as he walked into Taehyung's bedroom and opened the walk in closet. 

"You know how Taehyung had that safe that he never gave you the password to?" Hoseok asked to Jimin.

"Of course, he nearly killed me for trying to break into it, once." Jimin winced at the memory. Their whole relationship seemed so foolish now. All the fighting and lying and sneaking, and now...Taehyung just wasn't anymore. 

"Well, he didn't want you in it because it housed the only secrets he ever kept from you. Only two people know how to get into this safe now. Me and Koo." Hoseok bent down and entered the code on the key pad. He opened the safe and pulled out two folders, one incredibly full and one nearly empty, a small box, and a burner phone. 

"What the fuck?" Jimin marveled as he grabbed one of the folders from Hoseok, the full one and followed the other back out into the kitchen. 

"I figured we should lay all this out so you guys can really get a feel for what's been happening." Hoseok started by taking the fuller folder and opening it flat on the counter. He pulled out the papers, which were promptly grabbed and examined by Namjoon. 

"These are plane tickets, receipts, hotels and stuff." Namjoon reached over and picked a stack of papers. "This is the deed to house?" he realized, his eyes widening, "since when did Taehyung need a house in..." he peered at the paper again, "in _Italy_?"

"It's where Sanghyuk lives now."

Namjoon dropped the papers. 

Jimin gasped and looked up from where he was examining pictures of the house. "N's brother?"

Hoseok nodded. "Jungkook and he were actually really close friends, and apparently had been for a long time. Went to school together or something. Anyway, Hyuk got terrified of the business stuff a few years back and Jungkook helped him disappear. Of course, Taehyung was worried about Jungkook not covering his tracks well enough and helped him out."

"So that's what started everything?" Namjoon said slowly, "Jungkook helped Hyuk disappear and N assumed he killed him, so he went after Koo."

"I'm not sure about N's point of view," Hoseok answers, "I just know what happened to Hyuk."

"N never intended to kill Jungkook. If he had wanted him dead, Leo wouldn't have missed," Jimin puts in, "I'm not sure what his plan was but if he had wanted any one of us dead, we would be."

Jin was silent. He really needed answers from his friend. 

"Anyway, right before Hyuk finally left, Taehyung and Jungkook..." Hoseok looks at Jimin and hesitates for a moment. "Well, Hyuk said he was sad that he was leaving before he got to see Jungkook get married and be happy. Apparently Jungkook and Hyuk had this thing they had decided when they were teenagers, to always be there for every big event in the other's life or what have you, so Taehyung and Jungkook got married. Hyuk and I were the only witnesses. It was at the courthouse, very quick, incredibly touching."

Hoseok opened the other folder. 

Inside was a page of crumpled notebook paper, a marriage license, and a couple of pictures. 

Hoseok set the small box on top of the folder. 

"Taehyung really hated that you weren't there, Jimin. He wanted you there." Hoseok looked over at Namjoon. "Jungkook felt so guilty for not telling you. He would come over to my apartment in tears because he didn't know if he could keep it a secret anymore."

Namjoon grabbed the pictures and looked at them with misty eyes. He had already known, of course, but that didn't take away the sting of realizing, again, that he had missed his brother's happiest day and now he would never get it back. 

There were three pictures, two of all four members of the wedding party, one serious, one goofy, and then one of only Jungkook and Taehyung. 

Namjoon had never seen Jungkook so relaxed and content. 

Jimin peered at the pictures over his shoulder. 

He'd never seen Taehyung smile like that. It sent a pang through his chest, knowing that he'd effectively ruined the happiest thing Taehyung had ever had. And now Taehyung was dead. 

Jimin looked down at the notebook paper. It was in Taehyung's handwriting, the word vows scribbled haphazardly at the top. 

Jimin picked it up and read throught the paper. 

"They really loved each other so much," Hoseok mumbles, his voice shaking a little bit as he spoke, "They had this whole plan. The ring that Taehyung got from Jungkook was supposed to be the sign. The sign that they could leave. That Jungkook was ready to choose Tae, 100%. Taehyung didn't want to tear him away from you, Namjoon. He wanted Jungkook to pick the timing."

"They were married," Jimin murmured, softly.

"They were in love."

"No wonder he hates me," Jimin laughed bitterly, "Fuck, I would."

"I think he'll come round," Jin murmurs, stroking Jimin's back in comfort. 

"I guess, we have to go through everything else?" Namjoon says with a sigh. 

Jimin shudders. "I can't believe this is actually happening."

Yoongi wrapped his arms around Jimin. Jimin clung to him for several seconds, and then the real task began. 


	22. XXI

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For an enhanced experience listen to Lullaby by IU while you read. 
> 
> Here comes the end of Taekoo.

More days went by. 

Jungkook barely left his room, and Namjoon rarely saw him even though they lived together. He wasn't sure what was happening, but Jungkook left every night, and came back every morning, barely awake or sober enough to eat breakfast with Namjoon and Jin before he stumbled to his room and didn't return until night again. 

One such morning, Jungkook stumbled in, sober but tired enough to stumble anyway, and deposited the mail on the counter by Namjoon.

"Where've you been, Koo?" Namjoon asked as he picked through the mail.

"Just out. I've been working on photography again and the snow in the night is really beautiful," Jungkook said nonchalantly in answer, as he passed though to his room. 

Namjoon was suspicious for a moment but then he noticed Jungkook's camera bag slung over his shoulder.

Jungkook sat down in his room and stared at the envelope in his hands. 

It was from Hyuk. 

He knew it was, despite the return address being fake. When Hyuk left the two of them had decided on code names should they ever need to communicate with each other for emergencies. 

Like Tae's death. 

Jungkook had sent him a letter first thing. 

This was the reply. 

> _First, I miss you and him so much. I'm so sad to hear about what happened. I wish you could come visit so we could stuff ourselves with ice cream and crappy movies and mourn the proper way, you know?  
_
> 
> _Second, he sent this to me, and made me promise that I wouldn't give it to you unless the worst happened. I'm sorry that I kept it from you, as your bestest friend, I really wanted to just send it to you, but he said it was very important that you only got it at the right time. _
> 
> _Third, please write me again. I wish we could communicate better but there's no real safe way is there? I'm not ready for my brothers to find me, and with everything you wrote to me last time, it doesn't sound like such a revelation would be a good idea anyway. _
> 
> _I miss you Jeon._

Confused, Jungkook opened the envelope again and was surprised to find another letter inside it. 

> _My love,_
> 
> _If Hyuk is sending this to you, then something has gone terribly wrong and for that, I am so sorry. I never wanted any of it to end this way, but every villian reaches his reckoning. I guess, this is mine. _
> 
> _Please don't hate Jimin too much. There's no reason to. It isn't his fault. _
> 
> _I'm not sure what's supposed to go in a last letter so I guess I'll just end it by saying marrying you is the greatest thing I've ever done. Wearing that ring as a symbol of our bond, our love, and our promise to each other, is the greatest honor I've ever been given. _
> 
> _Thank you for that. _
> 
> _I'll love you until the end of this world, Jeon Jungkook. _
> 
> _Tae_
> 
> _PS, The purple was a nice touch. _

Jungkook smiled as he read, tears streaming steadily down his face as he read the letter, then read it again.

He only hesitated a second before he folded the paper up into a small square, along with the letter from Hyuk, and set them both in the ashtray on his desk. 

He never smoked, but Taehyung had so he bought one to keep in his room. 

Jungkook took out a lighter and held it to the papers watching as the flame caught and then licked along the edges, before it consumed them both entirely. He watched the little fire until there was nothing left for it to burn. Then, he wiped his tears, stood up, and went about his normal routine. 

There was nothing more to do. 

* * *

That evening, Namjoon was waiting up to say goodbye to Jungkook when the other left, just like he had been for the last few weeks.

When Jungkook didn't emerge from his room, Namjoon smiled to himself. Maybe his brother had finally decided to go back to a normal schedule. 

Namjoon went over and knocked on Jungkook's door gently. 

"Koo? I'm going to bed and wanted to say goodnight," he called through the door.

"Jungkook?" he called again, louder. Maybe he was in the shower. 

"Koo?" Namjoon asked as he opened the door a crack to check on him. Jungkook usually made sure to answer, so Namjoon knew he wasn't hurt or something now. 

Jungkook's room was empty. 

There was small piece of paper on the desk. 

> _Hyung, I love you, so so much._
> 
> _But this time, I need to be selfish. _
> 
> _Don't worry too much, okay? I'm alright. _
> 
> _Tell Jin hyung that I love him too. _
> 
> _Tell Jimin I'm sorry and that he deserves to be happy. _
> 
> _Tell Hoseok hyung thank you from me, for all that he's done. _
> 
> _I love you, hyungie, and you did everything you could to make me happy and raise me right and I'll be enternally grateful for all of it. _
> 
> _Your Bun_

Namjoon sank to his knees, a shaking hand hand to his mouth. Surely, not. Surely this was not.

But the window was open, and one way or another, Jungkook was gone. 

Gone for good. 


	23. XXII

It's early in the morning, a few months after Jungkook went missing. 

Namjoon refuses to believe he's dead. 

It's Christmas eve, and Jin brought Hoseok and Yoongi, who brought Jimin, over to keep Namjoon company. He hadn't been handling the holidays well, since this was the second year he had to spend without Koo. 

There's a sharp frantic knock on the door, interrupting the movie they'd been pretending to watch. 

Jin gets up with a confused look and goes to the door. 

When he turns on the camera to see who it is, he's surprised to see N and Leo standing there. N looks a little crazy.

"Open the door, Namjoon, I have something you need to see," N calls, out of breath, his voice a little higher than normal. 

Jin presses the button to unlock the door, and N barrels in instantly, stopping only for a moment in shock when he sees Jin. 

"Where's Namjoon?" he asks, scanning the parts of the house he can see widely. 

Jin points into the living room. He looks at Leo questioningly when N takes off like a shot in the right direction. 

Leo just shakes his head and motions for Jin to follow N. 

"What the fuck are you doing in my house," Namjoon demands, standing and glaring at N with narrowed eyes and clenched fists. 

"Your brother does photography, yes?" N asks, holding himself in a offensive stance directly in front of Namjoon. 

Namjoon's eyes widen a touch but he just nods his head once. 

"I got these in the mail." N pulls a couple photographs from his pocket and hands it to Namjoon. "In an unmarked Christmas card. There was no return address but it went to my personal home, and no one knows where that is except a select few."

Namjoon takes the pictures and studies them. In all three of them is the same figure, partially shrouded by an object or the angle, but not covered enough that you can't make out his height, weight, and other basic features. The figure is clearly the intended subject of the pictures, even if the focal point is the house's Christmas decor. 

"That's my brother. It's Hyuk," N says, grinning and bouncing, "he's alive."

Hoseok sucks in a breath behind Namjoon and moves forward to look at the pictures over his shoulder. 

"But look at the window of the second one," N says. 

Namjoon looks. There, just barely, you can see the reflection of the photographer. 

Jungkook. 

Namjoon gasps and looks closer at the figure to double check, but really he would know his little brother anywhere. 

"Joon, I brought in your mail earlier and you got this unmarked envelope. I tried to give it to you, remember?" Jin comes into the room holding two envelopes, one blue and one silver, with Namjoon's address and no return in the corner. "There's one here addressed to Jimin, as well." 

Namjoon hands the photographs back to N and takes the blue card that has his name on it from Jin. 

Jin hands the silver one to Jimin. 

With shaking hands, Namjoon opens the envelope. Inside, is a handmade Christmas card. The front has a drawing of his own house, with Christmas lights strung along it and snow piled on the sides. Namjoon feels his eyes burn as he examines all the little details in the drawing that had to mean the person who drew this had known him and Jungkook. There's a little swing in a tree in the front yard that hasn't actually been there since Jungkook was 15. There's a snow man built by the corner of the house with a little cape that looks exactly like the one he had helped Jungkook build when the younger was 6, and other little touches like that. 

Namjoon opens the card with a long breath. 

There are pictures inside this card, as well. Four of them. 

Two of the pictures are just of scenery. A striking sunset over the ocean, and a hillside covered in snow at night, with two sets of tracks obviously leading to where the person who took the picture is standing. The next two pictures make Namjoon's heart nearly burst. One is of Jungkook himself, facing away from the camera, with arms open wide as snow falls around him. You can't see his face but Namjoon can tell he's smiling. The other is of two silver rings sitting on a dresser. Everything except the rings are blurry but you can vaguely make out two people in the mirror. 

Namjoon looks down to read the card.

> _I told you I was alright. _
> 
> _Merry Christmas, hyung. _
> 
> _\- Bun_

Namjoon feels hot tears escape his tight grip on his emotions and slide down his face, silently. 

He looks up at Jin with a wide grin. 

"He's alive," he whispers. 

Jin wraps an arm around Namjoon and kisses his head softly. 

"I told you," he murmurs back. 

"Oh my god." Jimin lets out a shocked sob. 

Namjoon and Jin look over to the other, who is clutching a picture in his hand with white knuckles.

"Oh my god," Jimin sobs again, tears streaming down his face.

Yoongi has his arms around Jimin and is grinning into his hair, murmuring something that no one can make out. 

"Taehyung is alive," Jimin cries, holding the picture to his chest and curling around it. "He's alive!"

Jin and Namjoon share a confused look. 

Jimin waves the picture at them, and they take it. 

Sure enough, there's, clear as day, a picture of Taehyung standing in the doorway of the same home in all the other pictures, smiling in amusement at the photographer, with a single eyebrow raised in question. 

Namjoon grins and looks up at Jimin, who's jumped up and is dancing around in a little happy dance. 

"It seems they all are," he replies, handing the picture of Jungkook to Jimin. 

Jimin takes it and looks at it for a moment before he whoops and starts dancing again. 

Hoseok shakes his head and smiles. 

"I didn't think those crazy ass motherfuckers had it in them," he mutters, "I really thought they were all going to die."

"Hyung, you _knew_ about all of this?" Namjoon asks in shock. 

"I had a general idea," Hoseok admits, "I didn't know for sure how it was going to go down, but I knew it wasn't gonna be pretty." 

Hoseok sighs and plops down onto the couch. "I'm just glad they didn't actually get hurt."

"I feel very betrayed right now, hyung," Jimin pouts. 

"You'll get over it," Hoseok assures him. 

"But why?" N asks suddenly, looking at Hoseok in confusion. 

"I'm not sure, exactly. I know they were all tired of the dangerous shit. I know they all wanted out of here. I know there was something keeping Hyuk and Taehyung from leaving alive. Family stuff. You would know Hyuk's better than me. But the fact that they actually did it," Hoseok shook his head, "I was for sure they were gonna die. "

"Will they come back?" Namjoon asked, staring down at the picture of Jungkook in his hands. 

Hoseok looked at Namjoon apologetically. "No. They're never coming back."

A silence filled the room that was neither sad nor happy. It was almost bittersweet.

"Will we ever find them?" Leo asked, his voice even softer than usual. It was the only indication that he was just affected by this as anyone else. 

"I can't say for Hyuk. I think he's pretty permanent where he is." Hoseok looks at Namjoon and Jimin apologetically again. "But Jungkook and Taehyung don't want to be found. You know as well as I do that Taehyung has a lot of enemies. If anyone finds out he's alive...well, he's a lot weaker now than he was before. It wouldn't be quite so hard to take him down."

Namjoon looks down at Jungkook's pictures. This might be all he gets for the rest of their lives. 

The empire has fallen, as they say. And the house of card dismantled. 

That doesn't mean that they're safe. That doesn't mean that people against them will give up trying to get them. 

Life goes on. 

And if life has to go on through pictures and wishes then so be it. 

They'll take anything they can get.


	24. XXIII

In short, all it took was little money, a lot of planning, and just a drop of poison. 

When N came for Jungkook, Taehyung knew it was time. It was far past time. 

Hyuk had been the one to tell him that Jungkook was still alive.

Hyuk kept a pretty close eye on his brothers, to make sure they were safe. 

So, Taehyung had known from the very start that Jungkook wasn't dead. 

Like always, he stayed one step ahead of his competitors and barely managed to stay alive. 

As for jumping out of the window, that was real. Taehyung actually almost died. He saw his life flash before his eyes, for sure. 

Thankfully Leo was smart enough to take off and not look back, otherwise the whole ruse would've been up. 

Taehyung paid some stunt people to help him.

Then he paid some "hospital staff" to kill him. Well, induce catalepsy but details. 

Then he left. 

That wasn't part of the plan. Jungkook and Taehyung were supposed to go together. When Jungkook found out Tae was in the hospital, it was all real. 

Until the letter from Hyuk.

Hyuk never knew where the house Jungkook and Namjoon shared was. It was always too much of a risk to tell anyone where they really lived, even if they trusted each other implicitly. 

It had been almost a full year before Taehyung, Jungkook and Sanghyuk decided to let their families know they were okay. 

It was actually Taehyung's idea, which surprised Jungkook and Hyuk because he had been the most adamant about keeping it a secret for so long. 

Jungkook was lounging around watching tv when Taehyung came out of their bedroom and said, "I want to send this to Chim" and that had decided it. They would all let the story fall out into the open, much to Hoseok's relief. 

It was hard for him to listen to Jimin and Namjoon mourn when he knew that there was no real reason to. 

You already know what Jungkook wrote Namjoon. 

What follows are the other two notes. 

> _Hyungs, _
> 
> _Yes, I promise it's actually Sanghyuk. _
> 
> _I didn't want it to have to be this way, but I think it's better. I'm not a liability, and you can all carry on as usual. _
> 
> _I can't believe you hurt Jungkook. As if he would ever hurt me, or anyone else that he cares about. _
> 
> _I want you all to know that I'm safe, happy, free, and completely content where I am. _
> 
> _Don't look for me. When I want you to find me, I'll let you know. _
> 
> _I love you both and everyone else at home. _
> 
> _I miss you both so much everyday. _
> 
> _We'll see each other again, I promise. _
> 
> _\- Hyuk_

> _Jiminie,_
> 
> _What a life we've had together. What a life we've had separately. _
> 
> _I'm sorry to do this to you, but you have to understand now that I needed Jungkook. Just Jungkook. I've finally learned what love is, Chim. I finally know what it looks like, and how it feels, and I needed to hold onto it. You got caught in the firing range of that, and I'm sorry. _
> 
> _I took your necklace and gave it N. I needed an out. _
> 
> _You didn't do anything wrong, and I'm not holding any of it against you, so you shouldn't either. _
> 
> _None of this is your fault. _
> 
> _It's mine for never standing up for either of us. Mine for not being strong enough to protect you, or me, or Jungkook, for that matter. _
> 
> _In the end, this is all because I'm weak. _
> 
> _But not anymore. _
> 
> _I want you be happy Jimin. I want you to be in love and have all the joy and happiness that comes with it. _
> 
> _I still don't think Yoongi is good enough for you, but if he's your choice then I guess more power to you. _
> 
> _I'm sticking by my recommendation of Hoseok, though. _
> 
> _I love you. My soulmate. _
> 
> _I'll see you again soon, I promise. _
> 
> _-Vante_

> 


	25. Epilogue

_5 years later_

"I know what I said, Taehyung, but could you honestly imagine just pretending like we're not missing this? It's been five years. I think it's time." 

"ItTaehyung eyed Jungkook carefully. "If you're sure, love. Anything for you."

Jungkook smiled and curled further into Taehyung's embrace and pressed a soft kiss to his mouth. "Thank you," he murmured. 

Taehyung smiled down at him, his eyes shining with love, but also looking a little wary.

* * *

Namjoon looked around the room. 

This was definitely the happiest day of his life, but there was some kind of sadness clinging to him that he just couldn't shake no matter how hard he tried. 

Jin looked over at him and smiled gently. Namjoon looked at his and he smiled slightly, but now that the ceremony was over and they were just eating and watching the people around them, he felt Jungkook's absence stronger than ever. 

Jin took his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. 

Namjoon smiled a little more genuinely and squeezed Jin's hand back. 

The rest of the night, that lingering sadness didn't fade completely, but it became inconsequential in the face of dancing, eating, and celebrating his marriage to Jin, finally. Jin worked hard to keep Namjoon distracted and focused on anything other than the lack of his brother. Namjoon noticed, of course, and was incredibly grateful.

Once everything was over, it was just Namjoon, Jin, Jimin, Yoongi and Hoseok there. They were all working on cleaning up when the doors to the hall opened once more. 

"The reception is over, I'm sorry," Seokjin called without looking up.

"We were hoping to catch you all before you left," called a soft, smiling voice that had Jin freezing where he bent over to pick something up off the floor. 

He heard something clatter to the floor, and then saw Namjoon run across the hall and grab his younger brother in the tightest hug he could.

Namjoon couldn't stop the sobs that released themselves into Jungkook's shoulder. 

"Did you really think I'd miss you finally getting married to Seokjin?" Jungkook murmured thickly into Namjoon's shoulder. "I've been telling you to just do it for like 10 years now."

Namjoon let out a choked laugh and moved back from Jungkook's embrace. 

Jin came over to the two of them, and hugged Jungkook as well. 

"You asked him didn't you," Jungkook asked with an amused tone. 

"Damn straight, I did," Jin muttered, his voice cracking as he held Jungkook close. 

The three of them all jumped when Jimin suddenly screeched from the other side of the room. 

"KIM TAEHYUNG!" he cried, full of joy, as he ran at the other man and tackled him to the ground in a powerful embrace. 

"Hey, Jiminie," Taehyung said, laughing and he and Jimin rolled across the floor. 

That's when Namjoon heard the little giggles. 

He looked down and saw a small boy watching Taehyung with a bright smile, giggling, where he stood clinging to Jungkook's pant leg. 

Namjoon tapped Jungkook's shoulder and pointed at the boy. 

Jungkook smiled and kneeled down to put his arms around the boy and lift him up. 

"Bogum, this is Uncle Namjoon and Uncle Seokjin. Remember Daddy and I talking about them," Jungkook said looking at the boy who was smiling shyly at Namjoon and Seokjin. "Hyungs, this is our son, Bogummie."

"Hello, Bogum-ssi," Jin said softly, offering a hand for the child to shake. 

Jungkook directed him to shake Jin's hand. 

"Say hi," Jungkook tells him. 

"Hi," Bogum whispers softly, his wide eyes landing on Namjoon and widening even more. He reaches out to Namjoon, much to the other's surprise. 

Namjoon gets over his shock and holds his arms out to the boy, who climbs over quite easily and clings onto Namjoon, until he wraps his arms around the boy to hold him up. Then he brushes small hands against Namjoon's cheeks, brushing away tear tracks there. 

"Daddy says that crying isn't good for you. He says it makes you ugly, so you shouldn't cry," Bogum says 100% seriously.

Jungkook smiles but rolls his eyes. 

Taehyung finally stands up from the floor, where he and Jimin had paused at the introductions. 

"You forgot the second part of that sentence," Taehyung reminds Bogum, "if they're happy tears, they make you more lovely." He takes Bogum out of Namjoon's arms and snuggles the boy into his chest roughly, making the boy giggle and push at him. 

"Are they happy tears, Uncle Namjoon?" Bogum asks once Taehyung lets up on him. 

"Very happy," Namjoon answers, smiling broadly.

Bogum smiles broadly back and Jungkook is sure his heart is going to burst right there. 

"Hey, hey, I want to meet my nephew," Jimin demands, popping up behind Taehyung's shoulder and peering at Bogum with a grin.

Bogum looks at Jimin over Taehyung's shoulder. 

"I'm Uncle Jimin," Jimin says, offering his hand to Bogum.

Bogum grins at him and places his hand in Jimin's over Tae's shoulder. "I know all about Uncle Jimin," Bogum says proudly, puffing his chest out, "Uncle Jimin is an asshole."

Taehyung's eyes widen at Bogum's confident answer. He glances sheepishly at Jungkook, who raises his eyebrows at Taehyung in accusation. 

"Baby, what did Daddy say about repeating all the words Daddy says," Taehyung asks Bogum sweetly.

"That Daddy says bad boy words and Papa wouldn't like it is I say them," Bogum says, also totally confident in his answer. 

"Right," Taehyung nods, "asshole is one of those words."

"Oh." Bogum looks at Jimin. "Then I don't know anything about Uncle Jimin."

Namjoon and Jin burst out laughing. Jimin giggles into his hand and smacks Taehyung's shoulder. Jungkook just sighs and rolls his eyes. 

After everything, they're still a family. 

They're even a little bit bigger now. 

The house of cards may have fallen.

But the Kim-Jeon house is on the rise, and it's built on the strongest foundation of them all. 

Love. 

끝


End file.
